Today marks two weeks since the college football transfer portal winter window opened, and over 2,000 players have already entered their names into the database, with dozens more still expected to test the waters before the cycle closes
Rosters are being completely transformed ahead of the winter and spring football calendars for 2025, and the Big 12 is no exception.
The Big 12 has some of the biggest winners and losers of any conference in college football through the first 14 days of madness.
Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from the league through the first two weeks:
Winner: Texas Tech
Texas Tech was the biggest winner after the first week of the transfer portal, and that continued into the second week of the window in a big, big way. The Red Raiders have now built a class that is 17 members strong and ranks first nationally on all of the major recruiting sites.
Tech has signed seven four-star players in this portal cycle — tied for the most nationally — while the rest of the Big 12 has signed a total of five, and no other team having more than one. With what Joey McGuire and his staff have been able to put together, on top of what they were set to return, it feels like 2025 might be the season that we see the program finally take that final step toward genuinely contending for a Big 12 title.
Loser: West Virginia
West Virginia went out and got its head coach of the future — and the past? Yes, getting Rich Rodriguez back in Morgantown was a major win for the Mountaineers, but they’d better start getting to work in the transfer portal if fielding a competitive team in 2025 is a priority.
West Virginia is set to lose several seniors and has already lost 18 players to the transfer portal, some of which were set to be major contributors next season. Josiah Trotter, CJ Donaldson, and Hudson Clement looked like key pieces for next year’s team, but they’re all headed out. To make matters worse, the Eers have just one incoming commitment to offset their losses and rank dead last in the Big 12 as of Monday.
Winner: Utah
After the first week of transfer portal movement, it looked like Utah might be one of the teams hit hardest by portal exits. In addition to losses of players like Cam Calhoun, Simote Pepa, and Carsen Ryan — not to mention Isaac Wilson before he withdrew his name — Utah also lost several young but highly-touted players from recent recruiting classes, and it appeared they might struggle to figure it out.
Then, with the staff now locked in for 2025, the Utes started to put some things together. In addition to landing Devon Dampier, Utah went out and grabbed big-time portal names last week, including Wayshawn Parker, Jaxson Jones, and Donovan Saunders. They also added several depth pieces as well, and now find themselves with the No. 4 class in the Big 12.
Loser: UCF
The Knights have a respectable incoming class of transfers, with seven names currently expected to come in an help them immediately. However, that far from offsets what they’ve now lost over the last two weeks of the portal window. At 24 outgoing transfers, UCF is suffering attrition at a high rate and seeing its most talented players land at destination programs.
Among the biggest losses the Knights have seen are Lee Hunter (Texas Tech), Randy Pittman (Florida State), Xe’ree Alexander (Washington), Marcellus Marshall (Minnesota), Chasen Johnson (SMU), Caden Kitler (Arkansas), and Xavier Townsend (Iowa State) all of which landed with other Power Four programs. Losing that level of talent after being non-competitive in your first two seasons in the Big 12 is a tough way to start the Scott Frost era (V 2.0).
Winner: Arizona
What? How?
Yep, that’s right. Arizona is one of the biggest winners of the second week of the winter transfer portal window and for several reasons. First, they retained quarterback Noah Fifita, who was rumored to be portal-bound, and they convinced a tandem of starting safeties in Genesis Smith and Dalton Johnson to withdraw their names.
Then, on top of that, Brent Brennan and company got rolling on the trail and have 14 incoming players and counting, among them names like Michael Dansby (SJSU), Luke Wysong (New Mexico), Kris Hutson (Washington State), and Jay’Vion Cole. The Wildcats are far from out of the woods, but considering where they were this time last week, I’d say they won big time.
