Transfer portal has changed Boise State football. What’s it like for players?

Shaun Goodwin, Idaho Statesman

BOISE (Idaho Stateman) — When Jeremiah Earby entered college football’s transfer portal in December 2023, he didn’t have too many concerns.

Two excellent seasons at California put him in a position to succeed, and a connection with Boise State meant that it didn’t take too long for the defensive back to find a new home away from Berkeley.

In recent years, more and more student-athletes have been hitting the portal to go to new schools, as opportunities from Name, Image, and Likeness money inundate the market, making it all feel like pro football free agency.

According to NBC Sports, just over 1,500 college football players entered the transfer portal in 2018-19. NIL was first permitted for college athletes starting in July 2021. The number of football players in the portal jumped to more than 3,700 by 2024, and it’s sitting at 2,900 athletes with those intentions for 2025 — with a week still to go before the portal officially opens.

But it’s not as simple as entering the portal and finding yourself immediately with another team.

“You’re not always guaranteed to make it out of the transfer portal,” Earby, a senior at Boise State, told the Idaho Statesman on Thursday. “You may go in and not make it out.”

As someone who’s been there, Earby talked to the Statesman about what it’s like to navigate the portal — a place where four former Broncos will be in another week, having announced their moves to leave Boise this spring. Eleven players entered the portal during the winter window in December.

‘It’s like leaving a family’ when you transfer

Money isn’t the only reason an athlete may want to move to a new school. For some, such as in Earby’s case, it’s about a fresh start and earning new opportunities. For others, Earby said, it’s because they might not have a good relationship with the coach or locker room. Sometimes, the player might not like the city they’re living in and just want to be elsewhere.

Whatever the circumstances, a player’s first step is to tell the coaching staff.

“It’s pretty nerve-racking,” Earby said. “It’s like leaving a family. It’s like telling your parents you want to move out.” Earby said he had a good relationship with his coaches at Cal.

When he told them he’d be entering the portal in December 2023, they understood his decision and offered to help him, including acting as a reference. But what caused even more anxiety for Earby was telling his teammates.

“It’s a little harder because it’s like, they’re literally your brothers,” Earby said. “But they’re even more understanding than the coaches. They’re like, ‘Yeah, bro, go ahead. Go do what you gotta do. Go make plays everywhere else.’”

Boise State has had a handful of players go through these conversations recently: starters Andrew Simpson and Braxton Fely announced their intentions to enter the portal when it opens on April 16.

Broncos head coach Spencer Danielson said that while he’ll always love Fely, he told him that it was not the “best decision for him.” The transferring player must then work with their school’s compliance department to enter the portal officially, which includes submitting forms and watching videos on how the portal works.

Then the “fun” finally begins.

‘It’s more like speed dating’ in college football

Choosing a college to commit to while in high school is a stressful situation. Doing it from the transfer portal while already in college is a different ballgame. Instead of potentially having a couple of years to decide your future, you may have a month.

That’s about all Earby had — he entered the portal on Dec. 5, 2023, and committed to Boise State on Jan. 4, 2024. “It just takes you right back to high school recruitment,” Earby said. “But instead of high school recruitment, when you’ve got that long period of time of freshman, sophomore, junior year, it’s more like speed dating. It’s like you’ve got to find the right one in the right amount of time.”

Once the portal opens, teams sometimes contact the player directly to gauge interest. However, in many cases, student-athletes use preexisting connections, such as coaches they know, or reignite a relationship built during high school recruitment. Some also use an NIL agent, who helps athletes secure and negotiate money deals with schools, as well as other partnerships.

Earby’s former high school coach was willing to help him find a new school. Very quickly, he was in talks with Louisville, Washington and Oregon State. It involved a lot of Zoom meetings and phone calls with teams, and sometimes campus visits. One team was on Earby pretty quickly and wouldn’t relent: Boise State.

Earby’s cousin, A’Marion McCoy, had transferred to the Broncos a year earlier and was quick to tell the coaching staff about Earby.

“The month was just me and a lot of phone calls with Coach (Demario) Warren,” Earby said. “Then, when I came out here, it was very genuine. Coach Warren was still the same person, very chill and laid back. Coach (Danielson) was still the same person. I’m not even on the team, and he’s like, ‘I love you, I care about you.’”

Where it can go wrong when transferring

Earby said his situation in the transfer portal was likely much less stressful than many others, thanks to the way it played out. However, he still had a small checklist of what he wanted and what Boise State had to match, which he suggested many players should have.

“I just really wanted somewhere I could come in and play, make an impact right away,” Earby said. “I really didn’t care too much about the money; it really wasn’t a big thing for me. And then I just wanted a defense that I knew I could come in and learn very fast and play.”

Earby got what he wanted — he played in all 14 games for Boise State last year — but things don’t always go smoothly. Boise State fans saw that up close last season.

Former five-star recruit Malachi Nelson transferred to Boise State in 2024 after failing to break through at USC. After failing to beat out Maddux Madsen last summer for the starting job, he attempted just 17 throws as a Bronco and left the program in December. He’s set to suit up for UTEP in 2025, his third team in three years.

Earby said it’s not just a bad decision that can lead a player to end up somewhere that doesn’t work out. The short time span for a player to transfer, paired with not wanting to lose a roster spot, can necessitate a hasty decision. Earby said that’s why he was adamant about visiting schools before committing.

“(It’s not), ‘the biggest school offers me the most amount of money, let me go there,’” Earby explained. “And now you’re jumping on a roster, and you’re a guy where one of your pillars was, ‘I want to come in and play.’ Now you’re sitting fourth on the depth chart, right back at square one.” For many athletes, entering the transfer portal also means forgoing scholarships they had at their previous school. And it’s a legitimate fear for many athletes that they may not end up on a roster, or at the level they want to be, by the time the door slams shut.

“You may have to go to JUCO, you may have to go to a lower-level school,” Earby said. “It’s always that risk factor, especially if you’re somebody that didn’t see the field much, didn’t have that much in-game film. … That makes part of that scary.”