One of the most talented wide receivers in the SEC has made his final decision when it comes to entering the transfer portal days before his team is set to appear in the second round of the College Football Playoff.

And it’s a decision that Alabama fans should welcome right before their team is set to take on the top seed team from the historic Rose Bowl.

Alabama star is staying put

Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Williams has stated that he will return to the school for the 2026 college football season.

“Of course. I’m Alabama through and through. I have no intentions of being anywhere else,” Williams told reporters before the Tide’s appearance in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal game.

So he’s not going into the portal? “Nah,” he said.

Coming off an impressive comeback victory against Oklahoma in the first round, Alabama is set to face off against undefeated No. 1 overall seed Indiana in the second-round fixture from Pasadena on New Year’s Day, and Williams should be a big part of its game plan.

Williams burst onto the scene last fall

Williams made a name for himself as a 17-year-old freshman last season, catching 48 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns in addition to two rushing scores.

The wideout’s gravity-defying and acrobatic plays in a statement win against Georgia, in particular, made him a household name among college football fans in the SEC and nationally.

And he was able to parlay that success into a solid NIL valuation, ranking among the top 50 players in the NCAA and in the top 35 in football with a reported $1.6 million estimation, according to the On3 Sports national rankings.

This was a down year, though

Expectations were through the roof coming off his debut campaign, but Williams’ production didn’t live as much up to the hype in his sophomore effort.

The wideout recorded 43 receptions for 636 yards and just four touchdowns in 2025, although he had a strong outing against Wisconsin early this fall, when he secured 5 grabs for 165 yards and two of his touchdown catches.

“This season has presented a lot of opportunities for me and my squad,” Williams said at the Rose Bowl media day from L.A.

He added: “Learning opportunities. On the field opportunities. Really just growing as an individual.”

How the college football transfer portal works

College football’s transfer portal officially opens on Jan. 2, but that hasn’t stopped a flurry of players from entering their names for consideration at a new school right now.

The new 15-day transfer portal window from Jan. 2-16 and the elimination of the spring transfer period has condensed the timeline for players and programs to make their moves.

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

But to hear the Alabama star speak for himself, it appears Ryan Williams will not be among those names.

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Nick Saban went on a lengthy rant about the state of college sports, claiming he had all the answers. But, the former Alabama coach said “nobody will listen” to his solutions.

“I got it figured out. Nobody will listen,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. “So, you know, what are you going to do? I mean, we got to have, you know, some kind of antitrust exemption. You got to get the political parties together on it. I think the college people have to get over the fact that, you know, a graduate student can be a graduate assistant, get paid, is not an employee. So players don’t have to be employees. And these graduate students have representation. You call it a union if you want, but it’s restricted on what they can negotiate for.

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“They can’t say, you know, I have a lab that takes 10 hours and I’m going to go on strike, so we only have to go six hours. Can’t do that. You do the same thing in football. Put some restrictions and determine what you can and can’t negotiate. Shouldn’t be anything that has anything to do with athletic development. We already have those restrictions, 20 hours a week, whatever it is, that practice time. So there is a way to do this that satisfies both parties, that gives cover to both groups, so that we can move forward.” 

Saban even referred to how he was criticized for his opinions on the state of college athletics at this time. That’s despite college football being more popular than ever, but it’s not without its flaws. 

“And you know, I got killed in the Wall Street Journal for saying things like, college football is messed up,” Saban said. “But the thing about it is, everybody just looks at … the playoffs have created tremendous interest in college football. There’s a whole bunch of teams now that have a chance to get in the playoffs. There’s more interest than ever, higher TV ratings and all that. But the underbelly underneath that is not really good. It’s not really good for the development of players. It’s not really good for all the sports that we try to sponsor in college.”

Nick Saban has hot opinion about state of college athletics

“I mean, and I think we got to decide that we want to be, you know, a professional developmental league,” Saban continued. “Or are we really going to have college athletes who go get an education and develop value for their future as they’re playing and making money? I want them to make money. I think they should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they go about doing it.” 

However, money aside, Saban said the biggest issue is the transfer portal. NIL can be tweaked, but player movement has to be fixed. He even likened it to the biggest issues in basketball and has coaching legends hitting him up!

“And the movement is as big an issue, to me, a bigger issue than even the money,” Saban said. “I mean, everybody being able to transfer all the time. I mean, that’s not a good thing. Now, we even got a basketball player going to Baylor after he played in the NBA. I mean, you heard me say this before: we are going to have a quarterback gets drafted by the New York Giants. He’s gonna be playing for Penn State. I mean, what about that? Calipari and Izzo are blowing me up. I’m not even a basketball guy.”

NIXA, Mo. (KY3) – It’s a new era of college football. And Nixa High School offensive lineman Jackson Cantwell finds himself in the middle of it.

The Ozarks Sports Zone’s Danielle King sat down with Cantwell and his agent Drew Rosenhaus to discuss his recruitment and managing NIL.

Check out the latest high school sports coverage on the Ozarks Sports Zone by clicking here.

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According to On3’s Pete Nakos, San Diego State EDGE Ryan Henderson plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Henderson just finished his fourth season with the program, putting up the best campaign of his career. He now goes onto the open market in what should be his final season of eligibility.

Henderson did not play for the Aztecs during the 2022 season as a true freshman, opting for a redshirt. Since then, he has taken the field in 33 games, three of which were starts. Forty-five tackles have followed, adding 12.5 tackles for a loss, and 10.5 sacks. You can even add a forced fumble and fumble recovery in there.

There is no doubt about which season was Henderson’s best, though. San Diego State saw him break out this past fall with nine tackles for a loss and seven sacks. Five of those sacks were in Mountain West play, with the other two coming in nonconference vs. Cal and Northern Illinois.

Henderson played high school football at North Las Vegas (NV) Canyon Springs, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 1,289 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

A few other Mountain West schools came after Henderson during his recruitment. Arizona, then a member of the Pac-12, extended an offer during his senior season. However, he stuck with San Diego State and signed with the Aztecs.

Fast forward to the present and Henderson is on the move for the first time in his career. Finding productive pass rushers can be a chore at times for teams. Henderson can pull up what he accomplished in 2025 to prove he is someone to watch moving forward.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

More on San Diego State, 2025 season under Sean Lewis

This was year No. 2 of San Diego State under head coach Sean Lewis. An incredible turnaround took place, flipping the record’s numbers year-over-year. After the Aztecs finished 3-9 last season, they went 9-3 in 2025.

A spot in the New Mexico Bowl was earned, facing a near-College Football Playoff team in North Texas. However, San Diego State did find itself on the losing end.