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There’s more turnover than there’s ever been in college football due to the transfer portal, and it’s no longer rare for players to play for two or three schools by the time their career comes to an end. However, that has nothing on the journey quarterback TJ Finley has taken as he prepares to join his seventh team since enrolling as a freshman.
There was once a time when college football players had to put some serious thought into transferring due to NCAA rules that required the vast majority of guys who traded one school to another to sit out for a season before being able to suit up for their new squad.
That era came to an end when the governing body expanded its one-time transfer exemption to college football in 2021, a decision that coincided with the onset of the NIL Era.
Things got even more chaotic when an antitrust lawsuit led to unlimited transfers becoming the law of the land in 2024, which has turned the portal into a revolving door that more than one-third of players on a Division I roster this season entered when it opened at the start of January.
That included TJ Finley, the college football journeyman who played for his fifth team in the past six years after transferring to Georgia Southern ahead of the season. Now, that number is set to rise even higher after he opted for yet another new destination.
TJ Finley will start for his sixth team in the past seven seasons after transferring to Incarnate Word
Finley was a three-star prospect who played high school football in Louisiana before committing to LSU. He joined the Tigers for his freshman season in 2020 and was initially listed as the backup for Myles Brennan before going 2-3 after earning the starting job due to an injury.
The fact that he made his debut during the COVID-impacted campaign meant Finley didn’t have to burn a year of eligibility, and he opted to transfer to Auburn in 2021 due to the QB battle that was brewing in Baton Rouge. He was largely relegated to a backup role during his two seasons with the Tigers, and he went on to join Texas State in 2023.
He went 8-5 with the Bobcats before heading to Western Kentucky only to see his time with the Hilltoppers cut short after suffering a season-ending knee injury just a few weeks into the season (which made him eligible for a medical redshirt).
Finley headed to Tulane after jumping into the portal for the fourth time last year, but he was suspended in the spring after being arrested in connection with a stolen car and never played a snap for the Green Wave. He subsequently took his talents to Georgia Southern before going 1-5 while throwing six touchdowns and seven interceptions.
As far as I can tell, there isn’t a single QB in college football history who has played at least one snap for more schools than the five Finley has lined up under center for. Now, On3 reports the man who will be 24 years old in March is gearing up to outdo himself after transferring to Incarnate Word, which will be the seventh school he’s been officially affiliated with in the past seven seasons.
This is the first one that plays at the FCS level, and when you consider he previously said he was determined to keep grinding to support his three children, it seems safe to assume they were able to offer him some sort of financial compensation to downgrade.