As college football recovers from a disappointing weekend in the first round of the 12-team playoffs, the transfer portal remains busy.

More than 1,900 FBS players had entered their names into the portal as of Sunday evening, and more than 650 of those student-athletes have already found new homes.

The portal opened on December 9th and will remain open until December 28th. Athletes from teams competing in the postseason will be allowed to compete during an additional five-day window in January. The portal will then reopen in the spring for 10 days from April 16th to 25th.

Which programs win and lose? We dive into the biggest takeaways from the first two weeks of the portal campaign.

Belichick’s progress

How is Bill Belichick doing in North Carolina? No coach has done a better job convincing players who have entered the portal to go back to school than him.

Of the 30-plus FBS players who have had their names withdrawn, UNC leads the way with four, followed by Nebraska (2), Arkansas (2), UCF (2), Purdue (2), Fresno State (2) and Charlotte (2). ). All four started at least seven games for the Tar Heels in 2024: left guard Aidan Banfield, center Austin Blaske, receiver Kobe Paysour and linebacker Amare Campbell.

Belichick also acquired a top-100 player from elsewhere to the portal: linebacker Khmori House, who started five games for Washington last season as a true freshman. He had 35 tackles, one interception, one forced fumble and four pass breakups.

Who is losing high-end talent?

We cannot tell who ultimately lost the most talent through the portal until those players enter the field and perform at high levels elsewhere. However, if we go by the 247Sports Transfer Portal player rankings, no one has seen more high-end talent than USC.

As our Antonio Morales noted last week, Lincoln Riley has struggled to keep his top recruits in Los Angeles. According to 247, six of the portal’s top 100 players are Trojans, including standout receivers Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson, two former five-star recruits in the 2023 recruiting cycle.

The other former USC players in the top 100 are defensive lineman Bear Alexander (Oregon), starting right tackle Mason Murphy (Auburn), quarterback Miller Moss (Louisville) and running back Quinten Joyner (Texas Tech). This list does not include receiver Kyron Hudson, a nine-game starter who was not ranked in the top 100 and transferred to Penn State.

Other programs that have lost multiple top-100 players to the portal include Washington State (4), Florida (4), Alabama (4), Purdue (3), Mississippi State (3), Oklahoma (3), Kentucky (3). ), Florida State (3), Virginia Tech (3) and Texas A&M (3).

Dealing with departures

From a conference perspective, the SEC has brought more players (261) into the portal than any other league, followed by the Big Ten (249), Big 12 (232), Conference USA (209) and ACC (200).

Not surprisingly, many of the programs among the departure leaders had recent head coach changes: Charlotte (31), Marshall (31), New Mexico (29), Tulsa (27), Washington State (27), Purdue (26), UCF (24 ), Utah State (24), FIU (21) and West Virginia (18) all hired new head coaches in the past month.

Coastal Carolina (31) and Arizona (29) are also among the programs that have had more players participate than others. But both hired new coaches after the 2023 season.

One program that has experienced many exits but has had the same coach for some time is Arkansas. Sam Pittman’s Razorbacks have had 27 players enter the portal, with more than a dozen landing at Power 4 programs.

Among them: guards Joshua Braun (Kentucky), Patrick Kutas (Ole Miss) and Addison Nichols (SMU), safeties TJ and Tevis Metcalf (Michigan), receivers Isaiah Sategna (Oklahoma) and Jaedan Wilson (UCLA), cornerback Jaylon Braxton (Ole Miss), tight end Luke Hasz (Ole Miss), quarterback Malachi Singleton (Purdue), edge rusher Nico Davillier (UCLA) and Linebacker Brad Spence (Texas).

On the other hand, eight of the 13 additions Arkansas landed in the portal came from P4 programs.

Notable additions

As of Sunday evening, the Big 12 schools had combined to receive the most commitments (134) among transfers, followed by the SEC (128), the Big Ten (122), the ACC (100) and the American Athletic Conference (53). Our Sam Khan explained how and why Texas Tech has the No. 1 transfer portal class through the first two weeks of the portal season.

The Red Raiders had more portal commitments (17) and more top-100 players (8) than any other FBS program as of Sunday night. Wisconsin (15), Kansas (15), Ole Miss (14), LSU (13), Auburn (13), Kentucky (13), Arkansas (13), Louisville (13), Minnesota (13) and UCLA (13) were next.

Brian Kelly’s Tigers landed seven transfers in the top 100. LSU’s new additions include former Florida State edge rusher Patrick Payton and former Virginia Tech starting center Braelin Moore. Payton, a former ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, has one year of eligibility remaining. Moore has two.

There are 16 programs with at least two top-100 player commitments. The only one that qualified for the playoffs is No. 1 Oregon. The Ducks signed four top-100 players. Oregon’s most recent additions include 6-foot-1, 300-pound offensive tackle Isaiah World, who started 35 games mostly at left tackle in three seasons at Nevada, and former Texas State right tackle Alex Harkey.

The other programs with at least four commitments from top-100 transfers: Ole Miss (5), Auburn (5), Alabama (5) and Miami (4).

Miami’s moves

Miami lost two of its last three games, missing out on qualifying for the ACC Championship and the CFP. The Hurricanes also lost some key rookies in the early signing period. But coach Mario Cristobal is starting to build some momentum in the portal.

He landed four former starters in the portal last week: former LSU receiver CJ Daniels; former Louisiana Tech defensive tackle David Blay; Former Michigan State cornerback Charles Brantley and former Jacksonville State safety Zechariah Poyser. Daniels, Blay and Brantley only have one year of eligibility left. Poyser has three.

However, no one has yet been signed to replace ACC Player of the Year Cam Ward at quarterback.

Only a few top QBs available

Speaking of quarterbacks, most of the best to enter the portal have already found new homes. Only one QB in our top 10 – former Cal star Fernando Mendoza – has yet to commit to a new program. Mendoza’s younger brother is a backup quarterback at Indiana.

(Photo: Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)