The transfer portal age of college football has vastly changed the way that coaching staffs approach building their rosters in the offseason.
Its intended purpose is to allow players to leave their respective schools and search for better opportunities elsewhere, but it has quickly become something of a “cut” and “sign” model that we see in NFL free agency.
One particular example of this appears to have taken place at BYU following the Cougars’ resurgent 11-2 season.
Crew Wakley, who transferred from BYU to Purdue during this portal cycle, was apparently nudged out the door by his former coaching staff.
Ahead of his final season of eligibility, Wakley was told that he’d be splitting his time in 2025 if he stuck around and that it might be better for him to find another school, saying that the decision to enter the portal was pretty much “made for him.”
Wakley was one of BYU’s top safeties over the last two seasons, recording 44 tackles, one sack, and two interceptions in 11 games this year and 59 tackles, four TFLs, and an interception in 2021.
He ended up choosing Purdue over Iowa State and Ole Miss for his last season of college football and figures to be in the starting rotation for a defense that struggled mightily in 2024.
The transfer portal officially opened on Monday, December 9, 2024, and remained open until Saturday, December 28, with an exception for players on teams who play bowl games after the window closes. According to NCAA data, 2,273 FBS football players entered the transfer portal in the 2023-24 school year, with 1,558 (68.5%) undergraduates and 715 (31.5%) graduate transfers. Of the entrants, 57% reported that they enrolled in another school, 8% withdrew their names from the portal, and 35% are still active, transferred to a non-NCAA school, or left their sport.
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