College football transfer portal is creating issues. Here’s how Boise State is dealing
The College Football Playoff has yet to begin, and Boise State is already seeing players cast their gaze beyond the Treasure Valley as the college football transfer portal opens.
ESPN reported last week that Boise State redshirt freshman quarterback Malachi Nelson was entering the portal just days after the school learned it would receive the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in the CFP.
Nelson was ESPN’s No. 1 overall player in the class of 2023 and arrived at Boise State last winter as a highly sought transfer from USC, but he’ll now be looking for his third school in three years after losing the starting job to lightly recruited Maddux Madsen.
And Nelson isn’t the only Bronco planning to transfer ahead of the playoffs. Redshirt freshmen Jackson Grier and Dionte Thornton plan to leave as well, making them two of the nine total Broncos to have hit the portal in recent weeks.
The winter transfer portal opens Dec. 9 and runs until Dec. 28, and it has completely altered the landscape of college football in an era of big Name, Image and Likeness money. Players who play for a team with a bowl game after Dec. 28, such as Boise State, are given a five-day window to enter the portal after the conclusion of their season.
There’s also a spring transfer portal from April 16 to April 25.
The problem for many players with late-season bowl or playoff games is they can’t afford to wait that long. Many schools move quickly after the end of the regular season to fill scholarship spots and needs, which is why players often jump quickly at opportunities.
Additionally, it’s in the player’s best interest to decide on their future school in December so they can enroll and settle in for the spring semester.
On Tuesday, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said he doesn’t have a solution to the ongoing portal problem or its timing, which is making college athletics an entirely different world than it was even five years ago.
“Where are you going to move it to? Are you going to move it to spring? Are you going to move it to January? Move it to January and now you’re in school already,” Danielson said. “So what are these young men going to do? They’re already enrolled in classes. So I don’t have the answer.”
Danielson said it’s asking a lot of people to expect them to prepare for a playoff game while navigating the transfer portal, so he doesn’t blame players for leaving the team early.
Boise State senior defensive end Ahmed Hassanein, who’s set to graduate this spring, acknowledged on Wednesday that it has to be a hard decision for players to make, even if it’s what’s best for them.
Hassanein spent his entire college career at Boise State after being recruited to the Treasure Valley from Egypt. In his freshman year, 2021, he played eight games, before becoming a regular in 2022 and a team star in 2023.
Hassanein doesn’t have the highest opinion of the transfer portal. He said he understands it can work for some, but it also can affect the growth and development of many players.
“It seems like these days, if a young athlete doesn’t get what he wanted, he just enters the transfer portal,” Hassanein said. “Sometimes it works, but sometimes you’ve gotta learn. You’ve gotta grind it out.”
“If you skip the whole process and just enter the transfer portal, that will do a lot. That’ll affect you as you grow and as a young athlete. So I’m not really a big fan of it.”
Transfers among college athletics have skyrocketed in recent years after the NCAA ruled in 2021 that a transfer player didn’t have to redshirt their first year at a new school. During the transfer portal of 2018-19, a total of 1,561 players entered the portal, according to ESPN. As of Dec. 13 this year — just four days into the portal’s opening — ESPN reported that almost 2,000 FBS players were already transferring.
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham may have paved the way for how coaches approach the portal. The Sun Devils received a first-round bye as the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff and will play in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1.
Dillingham is allowing his players to remain around the team for the playoff run if they wish, while still entering the portal and negotiating with other schools.
Danielson said he’s also giving Boise State players that option, even if they enter the portal.
“Some of our players are going to go to the portal to go and find where they can play more, and it’s an open conversation with them on what that looks like,” Danielson said. “I’m going to give all those players opportunities to stay on this team and play through the playoff run, because I believe they’ve earned that.”
