Transfer Portal Carousel: Quarterbacks, NIL Deals And The Rise Of A WILD College Football Free Agency Market
As the NIL era reshapes the sport, top quarterbacks like Dylan Raiola, Sam Leavitt and DJ Lagway a new wave of transfer-portal bidding wars that mirror professional free agency.
We all know the coaching carousel has been in full swing since late September. Now its time for the college football quarterbacks to have their own day(s) in the spotlight
Things got underway on Monday thanks to Dylan Railoa, DJ Lagway, Brendan Sorsby and Sam Leavitt.
What else did you expect? This was going to happen right as the college football playoff started on Friday night, as the attention also turned toward the transfer portal that's set to open on January 2nd.
So, when a flurry of announcements were made Monday, it almost felt too calculated. But, welcome to college athletics in 2025, where players are also now ‘re-signing’ with schools and agreeing to new contracts.
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Yes, we are now getting these types of announcements, as USC released on Tuesday morning with Jayden Maiava with a picture of the quarterback signing a piece of paper.
"I'm not gonna to speak about any of that. I really loved working with Dylan. He's a great kid and gave a lot to this place for two years," Nebraska OC Dana Holgerson noted. "Just look at what's going on across the landscape of college football, how many quarterbacks have hopped in the portal that were starting at their school.
"It's the new norm. I can't speak for him (Raiola), I enjoyed working with him and I wish him the best."
Welcome To The New Free Agency Of College Football
Yes, this is now professional sports. So, you might as well get used to it, if you're going to enjoy the product that is college athletics. On Monday alone, you have five quarterbacks that left their current team, dipping their toes into the free agency of college football.
And, it's not as if these quarterbacks can sign with a new school immediately. But, this is a negotiating tactic being used to drum up more offers heading into the next three weeks.
Do we honestly think DJ Lagway is going to make more at a different school than he was bringing home at Florida? Well, that depends on how desperate an opposing team is for a quarterback with potential. The same could be said for Dylan Raiola, who is coming off a lower-leg injury, while also underperforming at Nebraska over the past two years.
Oh, and what about Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt? After helping lead Arizona State to the college football playoff during the 2024 season, he is now hitting the transfer portal after suffering a Lisfranc injury in the past two months.
Where are these guys going? There will be plenty of schools looking to add a talented QB, but we all know that these guys are going to be used as leverage against each other to drum up the offers.
This is where we are at in college football, as NIL agents continue making phone calls to a number of different schools in hopes of starting a bidding war.
This absolutely resembles the NFL free agency market, and you can expect some of these guys to start taking visits over the next few weeks, on their own dime, of course. Right?
You're going to see teams mentioned for these transfers that are not even remotely interested. This is already happening on a weekly basis in the coaching circles, as you can tell by the multiple jobs that were filled over the past month.
Did you think Alabama's Kalen DeBoer has done a good enough job to deserve a new contract? I don’t, but that's not how the game works.
Now, with multiple starting quarterbacks hitting the market, some schools are going to get involved in a behind-the-scenes bidding war.
Welcome to college football in 2025. Isn’t this exhilarating?