College football’s regular season is over, which means that the college football transfer portal is open. The transfer portal is what players choose to enter when they want to take their athletic talents to another school and football program. After just two days of the portal being open, 1,193 players have entered their names. 

There have already been several key players to enter the portal. Players like Washington State quarterback Cameron Ward and former Georgia QB and now-Kentucky Wildcat Brock Vandegriff entered the portal. Another big-time player is Walter Nolen, a defensive lineman out of Texas A&M. 

With these players figuring out where they will potentially land, name, image and likeness, or NIL, has a lot to do with their decisions. Some players in the portal have an NIL valuation of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Players have up to 30 days in the portal to make a decision on where they want to play the next season. 

A simple rule change has formed the transfer portal to what it is today. Previously, players would have to sit out for a year if they made the decision to transfer. Players can now start playing immediately. 

This rule change has turned the college football offseason into an absolute frenzy, where it now bears a resemblance to NFL free agency.

Players like ex-Georgia QB JT Daniels have taken full advantage of the transfer portal. He started his career at the University of Southern California, then to Georgia, then to West Virginia and then finally finished up college at Rice, where he has decided to medically retire from the sport.

There have also been several players who have been able to make a huge impact for their team immediately. Players like Michael Penix Jr., who transferred from Indiana to Washington, has led his team to an undefeated season and is now a Heisman candidate. 

Another player that has made a huge impact for his new team is Keon Coleman out of Florida State University. 

The transfer portal has definitely been a controversial topic, as it has made teams much better while also making other teams worse. Teams like Georgia took advantage of the loss of a player. After losing wide receiver AD Mitchell, they gained Dominic Lovett and Rara Thomas. 

A team like Clemson, who does not use the portal at all, is starting to show signs of falling behind the pack in their past two seasons, as they have started to struggle with more teams taking advantage of the portal.

“I understand why some players leave and enter the portal, but at the same time, it does not make any sense to me,” said Cayden Johnston, a junior marketing major. “If a player elects to enter the portal, then it should be for a good reason, not for an unexplainable reason — for Jermaine Burton from Alabama.”

There are also some students that feel that the portal should have some limits to it. 

“I think that the transfer portal has its reasons, but it definitely needs some limitations to it and should not be so easy to jump around from school to school,” said Brooks Whitley, a junior management major.