As we all know, the Transfer Portal (TP) is now ingrained in the fabric of college football recruiting. Not only are coaches making sales pitches to 16, 17, and 18 year old’s but have added the wooing of college age kids, including the players on their team, to their repertoire. All in the hopes of keeping or improving their employers standing in the sport of college football.
The recruiting site 24/7 now includes TP activities along with their “old school” team recruiting results.
Below is the 24/7 ACC “Recruit Team Ranking” for 2022. Pitt is last of the fourteen team ACC and comes in with a national rank of #73.
2022 Recruit ACC Football Team Rankings (247sports.com)
The “Transfer Team Ranking” includes only transfer recruits. Pitt currently has four and comes in with a national rank of #47.
2022 Transfer Football Team Rankings (247sports.com)
The “Overall Team Ranking” is a combination of the two links above. Including the four transfers, Pitt moves up to #63 in the national ranking and eleventh in the ACC.
2022 Overall Football Team Rankings (247sports.com)
2022 Overall ACC Football Team Rankings (247sports.com)
As I was writing the ACC Recruiting article, 24/7 published an article on their updated TP reporting. It includes totals for each P5 team on players entering the portal or they recruited from the portal.
Stock watch: Examining the Power Five’s Transfer Portal transactions (247sports.com)
At the bottom of the above link are the winners and losers of the TP by conference. Here is the ACC’s.
In and out: The ACC’s biggest winners and losers in the Transfer Portal (247sports.com)
I use this 24/7 site to gather my TP activity. Below is the link I use.
2022 College Football Transfer Portal (247sports.com)
Like most data it my not be the end all, be all for completeness. For an example, 24/7 still has ex-Pitt players Leslie Smith and Noah Palmer as not having new homes. I know Palmer is going to Duquesne and recorded that info. I heard Smith has a new home but not the name. So, my data does not reflect his decision.
If anyone has a link to the Rivals Transfer Portal site, please provide the link in a comment. Always good to have a second source of information to confirm. I just cannot find the Rivals TP site on PantherLair. It could be behind a pay wall. As to 24/7, If Pitt’s is incomplete more are incomplete.
I will not be doing an ACC team by team listing of players. That is for another day. Instead, it is a summary of year to date activity and since the TP became institutionalized in 2018 for the 2019 season.
The 24/7 article (starts with “Stock watch”), that I linked above, is for TP activity through 2/20/2022. My article includes data after that date. Another reason they may not matchup is that 24/7 includes unranked walk-ons in their data. Mine does not but I include their name(s) in a comment section on my spreadsheet.
After all that, here is the ACC summary TP activity by team. Any ranking data used comes from Rivals and is the players “high school” rating. I forgot to mention that 24/7 re ranks a TP entry based on his college play. That is why Kedon Slovis had a 24/7 HS rating of 0.8683 3-star and is now a 24/7 0.9100 4-star.
Since it takes me days just to draft an article, I usually cut of my charts at a certain point before I end writing. So, there are cutoff issues. For example, John Vardzel TP entry is not included in this data. Pitt actually has twelve entries not the eleven as it shows in the charts. Other schools (2) have a cutoff issue.
Three items I find interesting.
First, the number of TP entries from Virginia (19). Virginia, like Duke, Miami, and Virginia Tech, hired new head coaches for the 2022 season. Usually, the TP does not light-up until the new coach finishes his first season. Players and new coaches access roles and either stay or leave. Unlike past teams, Virginia players bailed without giving the new coach a chance. Mendenhall was obviously will regarded by his players.
The second interesting item is the number of 2021 class recruits who are looking for new homes. I just find it fascinating those players who signed with a team gave it only a season. It is not a new HC causing the problem. Virginia had three. The other three ACC teams with new HC’s had none. Only three of the twenty-one were transfers to ACC teams.
Lastly, is the number of players from Division 1 FCS teams who are transferring into ACC teams (9). Florida State hauled in a defensive end from Albany who 24/7 re-ranked as a 0.9400 4-star. He was unranked out of high school. I wonder if Todd Sibley (Pitt) and A.J. Beatty (North Carolina) is considered a fair trade.
The next chart is a 4 year history of TP activity by school. The top chart is for those who transferred “out.” I highlighted those teams who had 40+ transfers in the three and a half years. I also highlighted the two teams with the fewest. You can see Virginia transfer losses are an anomaly with the hiring of a new HC.
The second chart are for transfers “in.” It also includes a net gain/loss of players.
Reading into the numbers, Clemson and North Carolina are only using the TP to fill immediate needs. Clemson picked up their first portal acquisition this year to fill a QB depth issue. UNC is selectively patching holes. Make what you wish of the net outflow but remember the 85 man roster requirement and it effect of the TP.
Here is a link to the FAQ about TP eligibility and requirements.
OneTime_Transfer.pdf (ncaa.org)
Not covered in that NCAA FAQ link is a new rule. In order to help teams with roster management, the NCAA has put in timelines. The new NCAA rule establishes a May first deadline for players to enter the TP to have immediate eligibilty for the upcoming season. There is a July first waiver for the upcoming 2022 season.
That wraps up the TP review.
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