NIL
SEC Transfer Portal Update: Day One
By Chris Marler
The 2026 NCAA transfer portal opened Friday morning for college football. Early movement has centered on player entries, with no major commitments yet. Here’s a day one recap.
By the numbers
Over 2,000 players entered the transfer portal within the first 12 hours of it being opened. To put that in perspective, 1,600 entered on day one two years ago. Last year, the number of entrants on day one was nearly 2,400, and at the pace we are currently sitting at this year’s numbers should surpass those.
Going rate keeps going up
The market value for certain players and positions has been fascinating to watch over the first couple of years in the portal. The first Power Four QB deal that was reported when NIL was legalized in 2021 was Miami QB D’Eriq King who got $20,000 from College Hunk Movers. Those numbers have changed dramatically.
On3’s Pete Nakos gave a list of the market value for several of the positions in the portal this year. Here’s a look at where some currently sit.
- Quarterback – $750,000 to $4 million
- Defensive Line – $500,000 to $1.5 million
- Offensive Line – $500,000 to $1.2 million
- Wide Receiver – $400,000 to $1 million
- Running back – $350,000 to $1 million
- Defensive Back – $300,000 to $850,000
Exodus by SEC teams
These numbers will fluctuate rapidly, but as of Friday, Jan. 2 at 3:30 p.m. CT here are the total players that have entered the portal for each SEC team according to 247Sports.
The first day of the window still has nearly seven hours left at the time of writing this, but as of now 260 players from the SEC have entered their name.
- Auburn – 32
- Florida – 28
- Mississippi State – 24
- Missouri – 22
- Oklahoma – 20
- Arkansas – 20
- Tennessee – 19
- South Carolina – 18
- LSU – 18
- Texas – 16
- Kentucky – 13
- Texas A&M – 9
- Vanderbilt – 9
- Alabama – 6
- Georgia – 5
- Ole Miss – 1
Make sure you’re staying up to date with all things in the portal here at Louisiana Sports with our daily SEC portal update every day at 4 p.m. CT.