Eye-Opening Graphic Illustrates College Football’s Transfer Portal Movement And Virgina Got Robbed

• The transfer portal has led to one of the weirdest eras in college football history.
• When put into perspective, the amount of movement across the FBS is remarkably eye-opening.
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Since its inception on October 15, 2018, the transfer portal has become an integral, ever-growing component of collegiate athletics. Especially college football.

Over the course of the last academic year — across the Division I, Division II and Division III levels — more than 6,500 football players entered the transfer portal. On the FBS level, there has been record movement around the country.

Part of the equation has to do with opportunity or fit. Players who fall down the depth chart or don’t like coaching changes are seeking opportunity to play elsewhere.

Part of the equation is COVID-19. Because of the blanket waiver that was granted to all college athletes during the 2020 season, there are players with fifth, sixth even seventh years of eligibility who simply need places to play.

Part of the equation comes with the current age of NIL. College athletes are able to be compensated for their Name, Image and Likeness and some of the top players at their positions are either being lured into the portal with financial opportunities or seek them out for themselves.

When the full equation comes together, it results in a lot of movement across college football.

A new graphic from Pro Football Focus puts the current landscape of the transfer portals into perspective.

The graphic shows what teams were most effected by the transfer portal in terms of players with on-field, in-game snaps leaving or entering.

At one extreme, LSU brought in a lot of players with experience to replace the relatively small amount of snaps lost. At the other extreme, the University of Virginia lost the most amount of players with recorded in-game snaps (by a massive margin) and barely replaced any of that production.

And then there are programs like Boston College, Houston and Illinois which barely saw any of their players leave. They also did not bring in many players through the portal. Iowa and Georgia did not bring in a single transfer with in-game experience.

Here is how the portal breaks down on the Power Five level in terms on production gained and lost:

Virginia fired its head coach during the offseason and, based on the graphic, much of its starting lineup as well. Brutal.