An extended college football season finally ended last week, but the drama involving the transfer portal carried over through the weekend. Even Ryan Day and Marcus Freeman struggled to get a good night’s rest.

As rumors swirled involving Ohio State freshman star receiver Jeremiah Smith and millions of dollars being floated his way to lure him from Columbus, Notre Dame lost three offensive linemen who started at least seven games from a team that lost in the national championship game.

Roster uneasiness will persist into the summer. Not only is there a 10-day spring window (April 16-25) for underclassmen to enter the portal, but also graduate transfers can pick up and leave whenever they want leading up to Week 0.

Did we mention the NCAA still has roster limits, eligibility and revenue-sharing issues to hash out in the months ahead? You get the idea. Player movement is far from over.

From a conference perspective, the SEC has done best. Yes, SEC programs lost 28 players ranked among the top 100 transfers by 247Sports, but 16 of those players ended up at other SEC schools, and the league added 31 other top-100 transfers from around the country.

Now, let’s dive into the biggest winners and losers from a program perspective.

Winners

LSU

There were a lot of winners in the SEC. Ole Miss (six top-100 players added), Auburn (six) and Missouri (three) all had excellent winters. But nobody did better than LSU.

Brian Kelly and staff added eight top-100 players among its 16 transfers. No FBS program has more. The haul includes edge rushers Patrick Payton (Florida State) and Jack Pyburn (Florida), cornerbacks Mansoor Delane (Virginia Tech) and Tamarcus Cooley (NC State), receivers Barion Brown (Kentucky) and Nic Anderson (Oklahoma) and offensive linemen Josh Thompson (Northwestern) and Braelin Moore (Virginia Tech).

There are 202 combined career starts among the new additions to the roster. That should bolster a Tigers squad coming off a 9-4 season and returning starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.

LSU didn’t come out of the winter window unscathed. Receiver CJ Daniels (Miami) and edge rusher Da’Shawn Womack, a former five-star recruit headed to Ole Miss, were among two top-100 transfers to leave. But they were far and away the two most notable names among the 17 players who are leaving Baton Rouge.

The Path to the Boot

Transfer cornerback Mansoor Delane is officially a Tiger! pic.twitter.com/bLURsPMvIt

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) December 20, 2024

Miami

Cam Ward is off to the NFL, but the Hurricanes landed a star at quarterback in the portal for the second year in a row. Carson Beck, the top-ranked QB in The Athletic’s rankings, guided Georgia to a 10-2 regular season but was injured late in the first half of the SEC Championship Game and missed the College Football Playoff.

Beck, though, will be ready to start playing catch in a few months and take over the No. 1 scoring offense in college football, which has four starting offensive linemen returning and adds a new center in James Brockermeyer (TCU).

Miami was one of five teams to land at least six top-100 players during the winter window. Mario Cristobal’s haul includes five defensive backs ranked among the top 150: Xavier Lucas (Wisconsin), Zechariah Poyser (Jacksonville State), Emmanuel Karnley (Arizona), Charles Brantley (Michigan State) and Ethan O’Connor (Washington State).

You can expect Miami to go receiver shopping this spring with Beck in the fold. The Canes’ only big loss in the portal was wide receiver Isaiah Horton (Georgia), and Daniels was brought in to help replace him and NFL-bound Xavier Restrepo.

Among ACC schools, rival Florida State deserves honorable mention. Coming off a 2-10 season, the Seminoles reeled in four top-100 players: receiver Duce Robinson (USC), edge rusher James Williams (Nebraska) and offensive linemen Micah Pettus (Ole Miss) and Luke Petitbon (Wake Forest).

Oregon

Dan Lanning’s team ended the season with a disappointing loss to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl but is reloading with arguably the best transfer class in the Big Ten.

Five of the nine additions are ranked among the top 100: guard Emmanuel Pregnon (USC), offensive tackles Alex Harkey (Texas State) and Isaiah World (Nevada), defensive lineman Bear Alexander (USC) and safety Dillon Thieneman (Purdue).

That doesn’t include former Tulane star running back Makhi Hughes, who has rushed for 2,779 yards and 22 touchdowns in two seasons. The Ducks lost 11 players to the portal, but the departures had a combined three games of starting experience.

Among Big Ten programs, Nebraska is worthy of honorable mention. The Cornhuskers picked up pledges from four top-100 transfers: edge rusher Williams Nwaneri (Missouri), offensive tackle Elijah Pritchett (Alabama) and receivers Dane Key (Kentucky) and Nyziah Hunter (Cal).

Texas Tech

No team did a better job in the Big 12 than the Red Raiders.

Six of their 17 additions are in the top 100: edge rusher Romello Height (Georgia Tech), defensive lineman Lee Hunter (UCF), running back Quinten Joyner (USC), receiver Reggie Virgil (Miami of Ohio), cornerback Brice Pollock (Mississippi State) and offensive tackle Hunter Zambrano (Illinois State).

Texas Tech did a great job addressing needs at the line of scrimmage and cornerback. Will it be enough for Joey McGuire to push the program to the next level after an 8-5 season? We’ll find out. But the Red Raiders are a definite offseason winner. Of the 16 departures via the portal, only one (guard Sterling Porcher) was a full-time starter in 2024.

Among league rivals, Kansas deserves a nod for its winter work. The Jayhawks lost 10 players, but none who started a game. Among the 22 pickups via the portal, six were full-time starters for their former team: cornerback D.J. Graham II (Utah State), linebackers Trey Lathan (West Virginia) and Joseph Sipp Jr. (Bowling Green) and receivers Bryson Canty (Columbia), Cameron Pickett (Ball State) and Levi Wentz (Albany).

Southern Miss

No Group of 5 program hit the jackpot quite like the Golden Eagles. After going 1-11 in 2024, the school hired the coach who won the Sun Belt title, Charles Huff from Marshall, to replace Will Hall.

Huff brought over 19 players, including six full-time starters, from the Thundering Herd, most notably quarterback Braylon Braxton, the Sun Belt’s Newcomer of the Year.

In addition, Huff signed seven other full-time starters from FCS and Group of 5 programs: interior offensive linemen Cooper Frazier (Samford), Broderick Roman (Eastern Michigan) and Aloali’l Maui (Utah State), offensive tackles Hayes Creel (McNeese State) and Christian Anderson (Alabama A&M), linebacker Michael Montgomery (Portland State) and safety Josh Battle (Chattanooga).

Eight of 24 players who left Southern Miss via the portal started at least half of the team’s games, including safety Michael Caraway Jr. (Florida). But when you add up the career starts gained to the ones lost via the portal, Southern Miss stands at plus-172.

Losers

Purdue

New coach Barry Odom is taking over a roster that was raided after a 1-11 season in West Lafayette. Three top-100 transfers left the program after Ryan Walters was fired, including edge rusher Will Heldt (Clemson) and tight end Max Klare (Ohio State).

In all, 13 players who started at least six games last season left the school. Odom brought in seven full-time starters from G5 programs to provide some experience. That includes seven of his former players at UNLV, including left tackle Jalen St. John, linebacker Mani Powell and cornerback Tony Grimes.

Purdue’s 287 combined starts lost lead all Power 4 programs.

USC

Lincoln Riley’s first season in the Big Ten ended with a 7-6 record, including a couple of close losses to two teams that made the Playoff — Penn State and Notre Dame. You can make the argument the offseason has been a lot rougher on the Trojans.

Seven top-100 transfers left Los Angeles for new homes. We already told you about Alexander and Pregnon heading to rival Oregon, Joyner to Texas Tech and Robinson to Florida State. The other top-100 departures: offensive tackle Mason Murphy (Auburn), quarterback Miller Moss (Louisville) and standout receiver Zachariah Branch (Georgia).

The Trojans added 10 transfers, including seven who started at their previous program — defensive lineman Keeshawn Silver (Kentucky), center J’Onre Reed (Syracuse), guard DJ Wingfield (Purdue), running back Eli Sanders (New Mexico), safety Bishop Fitzgerald (NC State), cornerback DJ Harvey (San Jose State) and kicker Caden Chittenden (UNLV).

There are some quality players in that group, but the losses outweigh the additions.

Washington State

Jake Dickert’s departure for Wake Forest didn’t start the exodus from Pullman — it actually began with offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle taking standout quarterback John Mateer with him to Oklahoma — but it led to an onslaught of departures. The Cougars lost 36 players to the portal, including four ranked in the top 100 — Mateer, right tackle Fa’alili Fa’amoe (Wake Forest), running back Wayshawn Parker (Utah) and defensive lineman David Gusta (Kentucky). In all, 14 full-time starters have left the program.

It would have been worse, but new coach Jimmy Rogers from South Dakota State convinced 11 players to withdraw from the portal and return to the program. That includes quarterback Zevi Eckhaus, who looked good in the bowl game, and receiver Josh Meredith.

Roberts has since added 21 transfers to the roster, including 15 of his former players at South Dakota State. Seven started at least nine games last season, including cornerbacks Caleb Francl and Colby Humphrey from the Jackrabbits.

(Photo of Mario Cristobal, Brian Kelly: Jasen Vinlove, Stephen Lew / Imagn Images)