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 during the winter transfer portal window.
Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from the league through the first three weeks:
Winner: Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is coming off its worst season of the Mike Gundy era and needs to make wholesale changes in order to turn things around in 2025. Through the first 7-10 days of the winter portal window, it didn’t appear that the Cowboys were going to do what was necessary to make those changes through the most readily available method.
However, over the last week or so, Oklahoma State has been one of the most active programs in the Big 12. OSU is tied for the largest portal class in the league with 18 incoming players after their most recent addition, TCU quarterback Hauss Hejny, and has the No. 4 transfer class in the Big 12. Hejney was a four-star prospect in the class of 2024 and is a huge get for the quarterback-needy Cowboys.
Loser: West Virginia
West Virginia needs to get active in the portal, and fast, if they want 2025 to be competitive for the Mountaineers. While Rich Rodriguez and company have added five players in the last 10 days, they’ve yet to add a player from a Power Four program, and some of the outgoing talent is going to be tough to replace.
As of December 30, the Mountaineers have lost 21 players to the transfer portal, with nine of them already finding schools; of the nine already committed elsewhere, six have landed with Power Four programs. Power Four talent is hitting the portal in Morgantown, and to this point, WVU has responded by adding players from Jacksonville State (2), Tulsa, Eastern Michigan, and South Alabama.
Winner: Baylor
Baylor’s 2025 portal class has grown to 11 commitments, with three of them coming over the last seven days; and all three of them should play major roles going forward. The Bears landed two Oregon transfers on the defensive side of the ball, with S Tyler Turner committing last week and EDGE Emar’rion Winston committing to BU on Monday.
The biggest one, though, was Auburn quarterback Walker White, who committed over the weekend and immediately becomes the quarterback of the future in Waco. With Sawyer Robertson set to be the starter in 2025, getting a top-tier quarterback in the portal was going to be tough, but White was a fringe five-star in the class of 2024 and the No. 5 quarterback in the country. This is a huge win for Dave Aranda’s program.
Loser: Cincinnati
Perhaps the only benefit of missing a bowl game would be the ability for a coaching staff to transition all of its efforts to improving a roster for next season, rather than deal with bowl prep. Talent acquisition is priority 1A for Scott Satterfield and the Cincinnati Bearcats, but the well appears to have gone dry as of late.
Cincinnati hasn’t added a single transfer in the last two weeks, and after landing eight players in the first eight days of the portal window, things have gone ice cold for Cincy. Perhaps the staff feels good about what they have coming back next season, or they’re trying to trim their scholarship numbers, but the Bearcats need to be more aggressive if they’re going to get over the hump and back into a bowl game.
Winner: Texas Tech
Texas Tech’s last portal commitment was 11 days ago, so how can they be winners in this week’s recap? It’s very simple really: The Red Raiders avoided a portal exodus after their bowl loss to Arkansas and the gap between them and the next best Big 12 portal class hasn’t gotten any narrower.
As of December 30, Texas Tech has gained a total of seven four-star transfers, while the rest of the Big 12 has gained a combined six players of that caliber. What’s more, is that there’s not another Big 12 team that has added more than one four-star player in their class. Not only does TTU have one of the largest portal classes with 17 commitments, they have the highest average of incoming transfers (88.47), and by a landslide. The Red Raiders early work in the portal has given them a lead for this cycle that just might be insurmountable for the rest of the Big 12.
