Year after year, the transfer portal is changing the game of college football.

Players have more freedom than ever to switch schools during their college career. At the FBS level, more than 25% of scholarship players transferred after the 2023 season. Thousands of players becoming available each offseason is forcing programs to adapt and rethink how they construct their rosters to stay competitive.

How did we get here? Here’s everything you need to know about transfer portal recruiting, how it actually works and how it continues to evolve entering its seventh year.

What is the portal?

The NCAA transfer portal is an online database that lists student-athletes who are interested in changing schools. In major college football, players can enter their name in the portal during transfer windows in the winter and spring. For this 2024-25 school year, the winter window is Dec. 9-28 and the spring window is April 16-25.

When a player puts their name in the portal, schools can immediately begin contacting and recruiting them. Like high school recruits, transfers can take official visits to college campuses before making their decision. There is no commitment deadline for players once they’ve entered the portal, but these recruitments typically move quickly with players deciding in a matter of one or two weeks.

Players who enter the transfer portal are not required to transfer to a new school. They can change their mind and withdraw their name from the transfer portal database. Last year, 4% of FBS scholarship transfers opted to withdraw and stay. However, once a player enters the portal, their school can decide to cancel their athletics aid and remove them from the roster.

There are some exceptions on when players can enter the transfer portal. Players pursuing graduate transfers were permitted to begin entering the transfer portal on Oct. 1, 2024. When programs go through head coaching changes, their players are granted an immediate 30-day window during which they can enter the portal. However, players are not allowed to play for multiple teams in one season.

In the past, underclassmen transfers were required to sit out a year in residence at their new school before they were eligible to play. The NCAA officially eliminated that restriction in April and now allows players to transfer an unlimited number of times during their college career as long as they meet academic requirements.

When did it start?

The portal website was established on Oct. 15, 2018 as a compliance tool that made managing the transfer process easier and more efficient. Coaches can hit refresh and see real-time updates on which players have officially become available to be recruited. When a player notifies their school that they wish to enter their name in the portal, the school has 48 hours to submit their information.

The creation of the portal came with a shift to a notification-of-transfer model in 2018-19, allowing students to pick where they wish to transfer without restrictions. In the past, players had to seek permission to contact other schools and coaches could attempt to limit their potential destinations, such as opponents on future schedules.

In the early years of the portal era, football programs were only permitted to sign 25 high school or transfer recruits per year. Those signee limits made it tough for schools to sign more than a couple transfers each offseason. The NCAA suspended that rule in 2021 and officially eliminated it in 2023.

Schools can now sign as many transfers as they need each year, and it’s no longer uncommon for programs to add 20 or more transfers in a single offseason. That reform has also made it easier for coaches to run off underperforming players by encouraging them to enter the portal and seek better opportunities elsewhere. The result is more offseason roster attrition across the sport than ever before.

How has it evolved?

The transfer portal experience more closely resembles free agency today than it did when this era began in 2018.

The rules around transfer recruiting have evolved on a nearly annual basis over this six-year period, but coaches and administrators opposed allowing unlimited transfers from the beginning. That specific issue has been a tug-of-war for years that the NCAA eventually had to concede earlier this year.

In the first iteration of the portal era, graduate transfers could play right away at their new school but underclassmen transfers were required to sit out the year in residence. Players would seek waivers from the NCAA requesting immediate eligibility based on their circumstances. Gaining that approval was a complicated and sometimes lengthy process. As the number of underclassmen transfers increased, so did the number of waiver requests.

In 2021, the NCAA shifted to a one-time transfer rule that gave underclassmen immediate eligibility at their new school for their first transfer. If they transferred again before graduating, they’d be required to sit out the year.

Repeat transfers continued to seek NCAA waivers for immediate eligibility. Last December, the NCAA had to suspend its one-time transfer rule after a U.S. District Judge issued a temporary restraining order in a case challenging the rule. Attorney generals from seven states filed for the TRO, and the U.S. Department of Justice joined the lawsuit in January.

In April, the NCAA’s Division I Council approved emergency legislation that eliminated the one-time transfer rule and permitted unlimited transfers for athletes who are academically eligible and are meeting progress-to-degree requirements.

How many players use it each year?

Over the first six years of the portal era, the total number of FBS players who have transferred has more than doubled from 1,561 in 2018-19 to over 3,700 in last year’s cycle, according to NCAA transfer data.

Among scholarship players at college football’s highest level, transfers have increased significantly every year since the arrival of the one-time transfer rule and the elimination of the 25-man signing limit.

The final totals among FBS scholarship transfers rose from 1,946 in 2021-22 to 2,303 in 2022-23 and up to 2,707 in the most recent 2023-24 school year.

The total number of NCAA football players in all divisions who entered their name in the transfer portal in 2023-24 exceeded 11,000.

Who are some of the most notable players to use it?

The last two Heisman Trophy winners have come from the portal — LSU’s Jayden Daniels (2024) and USC’s Caleb Williams (2023). That pair was also selected No. 1 and No. 2 in the 2024 NFL draft. Three of the leading contenders for this year’s bronze statue — Colorado’s Travis Hunter, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and Miami’s Cam Ward — also utilized the portal.

Transfer quarterbacks have been a dominant force in the sport throughout the portal era. In fact, quarterbacks earned the top 10 spots in Bill Connelly’s rankings of the 50 most impactful transfers since 2018. Williams and Daniels were joined atop the list by Joe Burrow (LSU), Bo Nix (Oregon), Michael Penix Jr. (Washington), Justin Fields (Ohio State), Jordan Travis (Florida State), Jalen Hurts (Alabama) and Hendon Hooker (Tennessee).

At Colorado, Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter have led one of the most ambitious roster rebuilds in the history of the sport. The Jackson State transfers followed coach Deion Sanders to Boulder and were among 47 scholarship transfers who joined the program for the 2023 season.

In the 2024 NFL draft, nine first-round picks entered the portal during their career: Williams, Daniels, Penix, Nix, Laiatu Latu (UCLA), Jared Verse (Florida State), Chop Robinson (Penn State), Tyler Guyton (Oklahoma) and Ricky Pearsall (Florida).

What role does NIL play in the portal?

The one-time transfer rule was implemented in 2021, the same year that players could begin earning money for the name, image and likeness rights. While the NCAA has always prohibited pay-for-play recruiting and the use of NIL deals as inducements, money has been a major driver of transfer transactions over the past few years.

The rise of booster-funded NIL collectives across the country, as well as players being permitted to hire agents for their NIL negotiations, has helped support a recruiting environment where recruiting top college football talent requires serious financial investment. Many programs determined to compete for College Football Playoff bids and national championships spent $10-$20 million to fund their rosters for the 2024 season.

Tampering has become rampant across the sport as coaches, staffers and agents attempt to persuade players to enter the transfer portal with promises of more lucrative NIL deals. This is prohibited by the NCAA but has proven difficult to enforce. Oftentimes, when a player officially enters their name in the transfer portal, they already know where they’re going and have negotiated a deal to join their next team.

In February, a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction that prevents the NCAA from punishing athletes or boosters from negotiating NIL deals during their recruiting process due to concerns those rules violate federal antitrust law.

The injunction permitted collectives to communicate with high school and transfer recruits. The NCAA responded by pausing its investigations into the NIL dealings of collectives and other third parties.

What changes are coming or being discussed?

The historic NCAA antitrust settlement that was granted preliminary approval in October will have a transformative effect on college athletics. Starting in 2025, schools will be able to directly pay athletics and enter into contract agreements with them. The new revenue-sharing model will permit schools to use up to 22% of their annual revenue to pay their players.

While there are many more details to be worked out in the months ahead, the new business model will certainly impact the transfer landscape. The Power 4 schools that can afford to fully fund revenue sharing — the initial cap is expected to be around $20.5 million for 2025-26 — will have more money to spend on retaining their football players and landing transfers.

NCAA and power conference leaders continue to lobby Congress on a bill that would preempt the current patchwork of state laws, allowing them to enforce their rules and prevent athletes from becoming employees with protections from further antitrust lawsuits.