College football transfer portal winners, losers: Penn State and Oklahoma improve, ACC teams implode in spring

The action during the college football spring transfer portal window isn’t the same quantity play as the winter window, but there are still good players to be had if you know where to look, and the whims of the sport created some of the weirdest portal situations we’ve ever seen in this year’s spring. 

Take, for instance, Tennessee and UCLA, which effectively traded quarterbacks in a first-of-its-kind situation. Then there’s Cal, which battled both a donor revolt and an unclear leadership situation while virtually an entire position group left. All of this happened in what will probably be the last-of-its kind portal with the House v. NCAA settlement most likely scheduled for final approval within the next few weeks. It only adds to college football’s uncertainty. 

Nico Iamaleava’s Tennessee saga wasn’t the professionalization of college sports—it was a train wreck

Richard Johnson

As always, there are some Immediate winners and losers from the cycle, so let’s dive in.

Winners 

Oklahoma 

Brent Venables is pulling out all the stops to right the ship of his disappointing early tenure as OU head man. He imported the Washington State offensive brain trust with QB John Mateer and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. He retooled his personnel staff with the addition of former Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, and this spring he added running back Jadyn Ott from Cal. If the Sooners go down this season, they’ll go down swinging. 

Penn State

On the last day the portal was formally open, the Nittany Lions added standout Syracuse wide receiver Trebor Pena. In addition to Devonte Ross and Kyren Hudson, Pena gives a massive boost to a key position of need for Penn State as they head into a crucial season chasing an elusive national title. 

Colorado 

It wasn’t just Travis Hunter who left the CU receiving corps. Will Shephard, LaJohntay Wester and Jimmy Horn are also gone. In the spring portal, the Buffs added Campbell’s Sincere Brown to contribute to whomever wins the quarterback competition this fall between Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter and five-star freshman Julian Lewis. To protect, they added Memphis offensive lineman Xavier Hill, who’s been a full-time starter for two seasons. 

Texas Tech 

Few teams, if any, have had a better portal haul across winter and spring than the Red Raiders, who added perhaps the best player in the spring portal in EDGE David Bailey. 

UCLA 

It was a rocky road to get here, but adding Nico Iamaleava is a position upgrade for the Bruins at quarterback. Pair him with Cal’s leading rusher last season, Jaivian Thomas, and the Bruins did get better on the field by taking proper advantage of two of the higher-profile transfer sagas in the sport at both Tennessee and Cal. 

Losers 

Cal 

Losing Jadyn Ott out of their running back room is one thing, but Cal lost five running backs off of last year’s team in one of the largest portal exoduses at one positions you’ll ever see. It’s part of a broader picture of 18 offensive players heading in the portal between winter and spring windows. The spring window also saw another crucial loss from Cal in tight end Jack Endries. 

Syracuse 

Besides Pena, standout defensive tackle Maraad Watson also hopped into the portal this spring. It’s a tough one-two punch of losses, although Fran Brown is confident in his next-man-up mentality. 

Stanford 

It was technically before the portal opened, but Stanford lost a bevy of players this spring after Troy Taylor was fired by the school. The list includes: offensive lineman Jake Maikkula, wideout Emmett Mosley V, EDGE David Bailey and transfer Julian Neal, who signed with the team in December from Fresno State then reentered the portal after Taylor left. Interim coach Frank Reich will have to plug multiple roster holes in his season as caretaker. 

Potentially those who left Arkansas without paying their buyouts 

It sure seems like the Razorbacks are going to do what they can to recoup lost money from players who left this spring, and not just Madden Iamaleava, who left to join his brother at UCLA. There are multiple other players who left Fayetteville that the school will try to enforce the clause in the contract regarding liquidated damages, according to a tweet sent out by athletic director Hunter Yurachek. 

Arkansas NIL collective calls on prominent lawyer to enforce Madden Iamaleava buyout clause amid transfer

Brandon Marcello

The system in general 

The Nico Iamaleava saga between Tennessee and the family was a fiasco. It was an indictment on a system that simply must be reformed, but the process of reform is rocky at best in part because schools including Tennessee sued the NCAA in order to prevent the organization from enforcing NIL rules a couple years ago. Now we sit on the eve of the House settlement hopefully injecting some sanity into the process, but until the reforms are felt in the system, there is a high chance another situation like Iamaleava versus Tennessee happens again in college sports.