The day and age where college football rosters are sculpted and torn apart on a yearly basis is here. And with it come some troubling insights into just how little experience Power 4 programs are bringing back next season.
Colorado, Iowa State and Oklahoma State are three of seven Power 4 programs losing at least 30% or more their total snaps from the 2025 season. The figures, shared by Cody Nagel of 247 Sports on Thursday, have the Cyclones leading the bunch with 62.56% of their snaps lost to the portal this offseason.
Now, you’ll say “Iowa State lost Matt Campbell,” and you’re correct. Coaching changes nowadays naturally spur a flurry of transfer requests, and Campbell did end up taking a list of Cyclones with him to Penn State.
But then you look at Colorado, which lost 37.15% of its snaps to other opportunities, and you’re then reminded that Deion Sanders is coming up on his fourth season in Boulder. Sanders has historically disregarded the portal, but it’s not like his attitude toward recruiting has helped the Buffs, either.
Sanders held a “Come-to-Jesus” meeting following a 3-9 (1-8 Big 12) finish to the 2025 campaign. It comes after a 9-win season in 2024 that saw four Buffaloes picked up in that year’s NFL Draft, the most since three non-Sanders Buffaloes went to the pros in 2020.
Remember: They’re basically starting from scratch in Ames.
Iowa State went out and grabbed a winner with Jimmy Rogers, 33-9 across three seasons at South Dakota State and Washington State, one of those being a perfect 15-0 FCS national title run in 2023. Rogers likely won’t bring a conference title to Ames in his first at-bat, but I’d say its unfair to rule him out entirely based on roster turnover alone.
The Buffaloes are set to welcome 42 total new transfers next season, and the roster will look undoubtedly different from when Sanders arrived nearly three years ago. He’s a coach that’s cool with the portal – and that’s fine! – but whether or not he can justify the annual “winter cleaning” long-term is my question. The way the media moves, Sanders could win seven games next season and find himself back on the cover of Sports Illustrated just like that.
It’s worth noting that neither, Colorado or Iowa State, led the conference in outgoing transfers. Oklahoma State waved off 64 total outgoing transfers, according to 247 Sports. The Cowboys were victim of another coaching change with the midseason ousting of longtime leader Mike Gundy.
The thing is, we could be sitting here talking about almost any Big 12 program should the right series of unfortunate events terminate whatever false fortress they’ve built around their program. But as low as team sits, Indiana proved lighting can still be bottled under the new system.
