By: Connor Steffens
1/29/2026
With college football’s initial postseason transfer portal window closing on January 16, a few notable names have made the jump from one school to another, shifting the energy of the entire sport. Most notably, former Nebraska star QB Dylan Raiola will be taking his talents out west to play for the Oregon Ducks. Raiola, who tore his ACL earlier this season, will likely take his medical redshirt and sit behind early 2026 Heisman Trophy contender Dante Moore for a year before becoming healthy.
However, Raiola is just one of many major names that have made a key jump between schools for the betterment of his career. The best example recently is this year’s Heisman winner and National Champion QB, Fernando Mendoza. Mendoza went from a backup and afterthought at Cal-Berkeley, to a superstar and the projected number 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft under Curt Cignetti at Indiana. Mendoza’s brother, Alberto, just signed with Georgia Tech out of the portal last week. Another example is from 2024, when former Kansas State QB Will Howard transferred east to Columbus, Ohio to lead Ohio State to a National Championship. In today’s age of college football, with the amount of athletes that leave each season, teams are forced to sometimes build their roster back up, or sometimes back together entirely depending on the situation. It seems that it is going to become common for programs like Indiana who have been in the basement of the sport to randomly pop up and start winning. With this unlimited access to supreme talent and coaching, anybody at any level can jumpstart a rebuild just as quickly as the Hoosiers did.
Although the transfer portal has done lots of good for the athletes who go in and out of it, some may also view it as an issue that comes close to ruining the integrity of the sport. In this era of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), players can make money based off their brand and performance and can presumably make more money at bigger schools and/or higher tier programs. Many argue that this takes opportunities away from younger players, particularly elite incoming freshmen who hope to see the field early. That, paired with most division 1 coaches feeling the need to re-recruit their players after each season, makes for a sport that s transitioning
from one of pride, spirit, and competition to one of “how much money can I make?” and team-hopping in hopes of chasing the pinnacle of the game. It has become such a widespread issue that the NCAA has just recently abolished the spring transfer window that would have opened in early April. With all that in mind, fans are expecting a major shift in the college football world soon. This new era of the sport will bring massive changes that may force the NCAA to run it like a professional sport.
