Former Virginia starter Anthony Colandrea told ESPN’s Pete Thamel on December 26 that he plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal when it opens at midnight on Friday, January 2, following a career-best season at UNLV.

In his breakout year leading the Rebels, Colandrea threw for 3,459 yards with 23 touchdowns and nine interceptions, while also adding 127 carries for 649 rushing yards and 10 rushing scores.

His play earned him Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year and All-Mountain West recognition as UNLV posted a 10-4 record, including a 6-2 mark in conference play under first-year head coach Dan Mullen.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Colandrea began his collegiate career at Virginia, where he started games as a freshman in 2023 and remained a key contributor during the 2024 season before transferring to UNLV ahead of the 2025 campaign.

Before committing to Virginia, Colandrea was a three-star recruit and the No. 72 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the 2023 class out of Lakewood High School, choosing the Cavaliers over offers from Middle Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii, South Florida, and Florida Atlantic.

Now one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks on the transfer market (1,151 rushing yards across three seasons), Colandrea has already drawn interest from multiple programs, with On3’s Pete Nakos and Steve Wiltfong naming Tennessee and Florida State on Friday as early teams to watch.

With Tennessee, Colandrea would gain immediate SEC exposure, a higher level of competition, and a program in search of an experienced quarterback who can stabilize the offense and win quickly.

The Vols finished 8-5 overall and 4-4 in SEC play in 2025, marking the program’s lowest win total since 2021, and the quarterback situation remains uncertain as senior starter Joey Aguilar weighs his options. 

Florida State, meanwhile, is a program that values athletic, pro-style dual-threat quarterbacks and offers significant national visibility, along with a track record of recent success under head coach Mike Norvell. 

Norvell was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2023 after leading the Seminoles to an undefeated 13-0 regular season and an Orange Bowl appearance.

In both cases, the combination of a potential starting opportunity, stronger supporting talent, and increased visibility represents the primary upside compared with remaining at UNLV. 

The NCAA transfer window will run from January 2 through January 16. 

While there is no firm public timeline for a commitment, recruiting and visit activity typically accelerates immediately after the portal opens, with teams often moving to secure transfers within days or a few weeks.

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Transferring from Texas to Oklahoma should be considered a war crime.

PublishedJanuary 3, 2026 4:18 PM EST•UpdatedJanuary 3, 2026 4:18 PM EST

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I’ve been bemoaning the slow death of college football as we all know it for a long time now, certainly longer than I have been at OutKick.

Every time I think we have hit rock bottom, something else happens that makes me reevaluate just how much further the sport I love so dearly has yet to fall.

With the insanity of an unregulated transfer system and NIL in place, college football looks unrecognizable to what it used to be even a decade ago.

RELATED: Transfer Portal A Circus Before It Even Opened

Something else that’s really stuck in my craw lately is the rapidly diminishing importance of rivalry games.

We all know about USC and Notre Dame canceling their annual series, or the Big Ten implementing a nonsensical “rivalry” series between a bunch of schools that have next to no historical or geographical basis of hatred, but the transfer portal has offered a new way to make rivalries nearly meaningless.

With this year’s transfer portal less than two days old, players are already lining up their visits to their next potential school, and a few visits have raised my (and several others’) eybrow.

What are we even doing here, folks?

Look, I can reluctantly admit that kids should be allowed to transfer wherever they want, although I still think, barring extenuating circumstances, they should have to sit for a year, but this is insane.

DJ Lagway was smoking a celebratory cigar in the FSU locker room after blowing them out in Doak Campbell a little over a year ago, and now he’s viewing them as a potential landing spot?

Meanwhile, you have a guy like Longhorns wide receiver Parker Livingstone transferring to Texas’ most hated rival, the Oklahoma Sooners?

Florida and Florida State hate each other, as do Texas and Oklahoma, so all of this just feels gross.

It’s nothing new, either.

Another Florida player, running back Trevor Etienne, famously transferred to Georgia before the start of the 2024 season, but it just feels like it’s becoming more frequent.

I remember how big of a deal it was when Brock Berlin transferred from the Gators to the Miami Hurricanes and then beat his former team the following year.

Berlin was seen as Judas in Gainesville, but now he is considered just another casualty of the portal era of college football.

I miss when rivalries used to mean something to the players, not just the fans.

It makes college football feel less personal, which was one of the things that distinguished it from the NFL.

I want my rivalries to mean something. I want my college football back.

The NCAA transfer portal is officially open for all college football players seeking new schools next season. The portal is open for two weeks, officially closing on Jan. 16.

In the weeks following the conclusion of the 2025 college football regular season, thousands of players from all levels of the sport made the decision to enter the transfer portal. Some of the more marquee names in this cycle involve quarterbacks shifting the Power Four level.

One of these quarterbacks on the move is former Cincinnati signal-caller Brendan Sorsby. He will have one season of eligibility remaining at his third school.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder began his college football career under Tom Allen in 2022. He completed three of six passes for eight yards and an interception in a blowout loss to Penn State in his lone appearance that season.

Sorsby was featured in 10 of Indiana’s 12 games in the 2023 season. He finished the year with 1,587 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions while rushing for another 286 yards and four touchdowns. Allen was fired that offseason, and Sorsby transferred to Cincinnati.

The Bearcats started Sorsby in all 12 games in 2024. He passed for 2,813 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, while rushing for 447 yards and 9 touchdowns. Cincinnati finished that season 5-7, dropping each of its last five games.

Sorsby logged 2,800 pass yards, 27 touchdown passes and five interceptions to go along with 580 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground in 2025. He was named All-Big 12 Second Team by the Big 12 coaches. He opted out of the Liberty Bowl after deciding to transfer.

Schools searching for quarterbacks in the transfer portal are considering Sorsby a hot commodity. Pete Thamel of ESPN has reported that three schools have separated themselves in the hunt for Sorsby.

Texas Tech

One potential destination for Sorsby lies within the same conference as Cincinnati. The Red Raiders have been linked with Sorsby since he first announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Tyler Shough (Oregon) is the only starting quarterback for the Red Raiders to come from the portal in Joey McGuire’s tenure. With Behren Morton’s eligibility expiring and backup Mitch Griffis entering the portal, Sorsby could be the bridge Texas Tech needs between Morton in 2025 and Will Hammond in 2027.

LSU

Lane Kiffin has earned the “portal king” moniker for his work in acquiring players from the transfer portal during his time at Ole Miss. Quarterback is no exception, as Matt Corral and Austin Simmons were the only signal callers recruited by the Rebels from high school to start for Kiffin in six seasons at Ole Miss.

As a program, LSU has been very successful with transfer quarterbacks in the last decade. Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels both won Heisman Trophies a year after transferring to LSU. Sorsby could be a strong fit in Kiffin’s high-octane offense.

Miami

Mario Cristobal has finished with no fewer than 10 wins when acquiring a quarterback from the transfer portal at Miami. The Hurricanes produced the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft with Cam Ward (Washington State).

The Hurricanes are one win away from appearing in their first national championship since the end of the 2002 season with Carson Beck (Georgia) at quarterback. Sorsby figures to be an option given Miami’s track record with portal quarterbacks.

Let’s give Greg Schiano some credit (and a bit to Keli Zinn as well): This is a tremendous job so far in the transfer portal for Rutgers football. Simply retaining star wide receiver K.J Duff and running back Antwan Raymond shows that this isn’t the same old Rutgers.

Not by a long shot. Rutgers is all-in, something that Zinn has made clear in her five months on the job as athletic director. And the ability to keep Duff and Raymond means that Rutgers is finally a player in the Big Ten.

Retaining this duo shows that the Scarlet Knights have made tremendous strides on the NIL front. Simply keeping both players while some top-tier programs had wanted to sway Duff and Raymond away in the transfer portal – well, it is a clear indicator of how far this program has come.