College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

[Steve_OS]

The transfer portal opened on December 9 and over 1,500 scholarship players have entered their names...

Written By: Chase Becotte

Click here to view the article.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I've realized that unless it's a 99spd WR and 90+ speed LB that there is no one worth pursing in Dynasty after year 5 if you have a good team.

[tlef316]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

Yeah, for it to be more realistic they need to DRASTICALLY ramp up the amount of guys transferring for playing time (If you're playing as a big school) or championship contender/Pro Potential/Brand (AKA NIL $$) for small schools.

But then the question becomes, how do you balance that with keeping dynasty mode fun for everyone? Some people aren't going to want the realism of their star players leaving their 2* program for the SEC. But right now its simply too easy to build insane depth up once you have a top program. In reality, if an 85 rated QB or RB is 3rd or 4th on the depth chart he should transfer.

Could see it being some sort of additional slider/difficulty setting. But right now its just stale. I can usually get a couple of 4 star type transfers every year, but its rare for them to be anything more than a depth piece.

[DL1287]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

The portal is easily the most disappointing part of the game to me.

Players already being in their top 5 or 8 the first week means you're locked out of most of the players without even having a chance. If I meet the player's dealbreaker I should at least have a chance to pursue them. I've had 3 players interested in my school after winning back to back championships.

EA also made a big deal of dealbreakers being a major part but I've never had any worthwhile players transfer out. It'd be nice if real players had different dealbreakers each save so you don't see the same players always transferring.

Players don't developing after transferring is also a major problem. Cam Ward and Dillon Gabriel were both Heisman candidates after transferring so it's not like players can't get better after they transfer.

[fnz21]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I really hope they don't fix the way you an create a new user/take over a new team and force players into the portal. It's a nice way to add some excitement.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I wish the NCAA would dial the criteria on what makes a player eligible for the portal waay back, before EA has to do anything to make more CFB players eligible in their game. I'm glad the players can capitalize on their NIL, but every player being automatically eligible for the portal for ''just because'' is a bridge too far in my opinion. I keep saying it but I don't care for the letting a player leave a team just because the team changes coaches. How asinine would it be if the NFL players were automatically free agents if they lost their coach? College players wanted so desperately to be professionals, treat them that way. Same goes for the teams too, you sign a player, you need to bend your university over backward to commit to that player for a full four years, not just one and ''we'll see''. So yeah, NIL was long overdue, but free agency, leave that to the NFL, and Madden.

[GOIRISH65]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

Personally I’d hope it was an option to turn it off. I’d like to play old school and reform old conferences etc.

[MHammer113]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I think it would be nice to have the option to have it on or off.

As for the transfer portal, I definitely agree with the majority here in that it is one of the weaker things in the game. Definitely need an NIL element, promises and dealbreakers on players and I would love to see player stats for players.

[PDuncanOSU]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I wish the NCAA would dial the criteria on what makes a player eligible for the portal waay back, before EA has to do anything to make more CFB players eligible in their game. I'm glad the players can capitalize on their NIL, but every player being automatically eligible for the portal for ''just because'' is a bridge too far in my opinion. I keep saying it but I don't care for the letting a player leave a team just because the team changes coaches. How asinine would it be if the NFL players were automatically free agents if they lost their coach? College players wanted so desperately to be professionals, treat them that way. Same goes for the teams too, you sign a player, you need to bend your university over backward to commit to that player for a full four years, not just one and ''we'll see''. So yeah, NIL was long overdue, but free agency, leave that to the NFL, and Madden.

I've thought that a potentially good way to handle this would be for scholarship lengths to be negotiable, but binding once agreed to.

For example if as school signs a player to a 4 year scholarship then both school and player are bound together for 4 seasons. The player cannot transfer to any other NCAA school but the school cannot pull the scholarship and player will also count against the schools scholarship limit for all 4 years.

Or the school and recruit could agree to a 1 year scholarship. That scholarship could be renewed for the next year if both sides agree, but school is allowed to "release" the player (not renew the scholarship) just like the player would be allowed to "transfer" to a new school.

[djflock]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

I've thought that a potentially good way to handle this would be for scholarship lengths to be negotiable, but binding once agreed to.

For example if as school signs a player to a 4 year scholarship then both school and player are bound together for 4 seasons. The player cannot transfer to any other NCAA school but the school cannot pull the scholarship and player will also count against the schools scholarship limit for all 4 years.

Or the school and recruit could agree to a 1 year scholarship. That scholarship could be renewed for the next year if both sides agree, but school is allowed to "release" the player (not renew the scholarship) just like the player would be allowed to "transfer" to a new school.

It's a tough proposition. It is school at the end of the day. What if a players parents get terminally ill and they want to be closer to home? What If a team signs a new recruit at QB and tells the redshirt freshman, we will never play you.

I honestly think the best option is maybe everyone is locked in for 2 years or like limit the amount of times a player can transfer. Maybe bring back the year period where you have to sit if you are transferring for a 2nd time.

At the end of the day, this is all the schools and the NCAA's fault. They only had 80 years to figure out a decent system for players to get compensated. Instead they were making billions and pretending that a 4 yr scholarship was all the kids deserved. NIL and transfer portal has gotten crazy but was anything in the world crazier then kids getting suspended from games for accepting free tattoos? lol

[PDuncanOSU]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

It's a tough proposition. It is school at the end of the day. What if a players parents get terminally ill and they want to be closer to home? What If a team signs a new recruit at QB and tells the redshirt freshman, we will never play you.

Under my proposal, player and school could mutually opt out of the scholarship. Both sides would have to opt out though. A player couldn't just leave because he wasn't getting the playing time he thought he should. Likewise though the school can't just cut a player and pull their scholarship. In the situation of the terminally ill parent hopefully the athletic director, coaches, etc. would be decent humans and allow the player out of their scholarship commitment. They would not be legally required to do so though. If the school wouldn't let them out of their scholarship the player could still leave the school and enroll elsewhere, either paying their way or under academic or some other scholarship, they would just not be eligible to play for another schools football team.

At the end of the day, this is all the schools and the NCAA's fault. They only had 80 years to figure out a decent system for players to get compensated. Instead they were making billions and pretending that a 4 yr scholarship was all the kids deserved. NIL and transfer portal has gotten crazy but was anything in the world crazier then kids getting suspended from games for accepting free tattoos? lol

I agree with you that the current situation is all the fault of the NCAA. They seemingly held on to this idea of "amateurism" for so long even when it was obvious to everyone else that eventually things would have to change.

[dmacgreg37]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

Under my proposal, player and school could mutually opt out of the scholarship. Both sides would have to opt out though. A player couldn't just leave because he wasn't getting the playing time he thought he should. Likewise though the school can't just cut a player and pull their scholarship. In the situation of the terminally ill parent hopefully the athletic director, coaches, etc. would be decent humans and allow the player out of their scholarship commitment. They would not be legally required to do so though. If the school wouldn't let them out of their scholarship the player could still leave the school and enroll elsewhere, either paying their way or under academic or some other scholarship, they would just not be eligible to play for another schools football team.



I agree with you that the current situation is all the fault of the NCAA. They seemingly held on to this idea of "amateurism" for so long even when it was obvious to everyone else that eventually things would have to change.

This wouldn't work. Denying a player an opt out would be recruiting suicide. There's a reason most schools used to let kids out of letters of intent if they changed their mind. Kids would go on social media and it would be a PR disaster.

[Fusker]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

At a certain point, trying to duplicate the current chaos would just become annoying in a video game IMO. A bit more portal activity would be fine, but getting a cleaner version of reality is fine by me.

[sra9888]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Portal

Honestly, they need to fix the ideal pitches etc. Each player should have weighted interest in every category there, and those categories need to be dynamic. Nobody walks onto a campus and says there’s 3 things I care about.

Each grade should impact the recruits interest and player happiness should adjust weekly based on the factors playing out throughout the season.

Happiness should impact play on the field, and some players should be able to withdraw from the team mid season if it’s bad enough.

At the end of the year, EVERY player on the game should weigh out their happiness, and rank it against every other FBS program to decide their Top 8 if they choose to leave campus. It also shouldn’t be based primarily on proximity to home like it has in 25. It should be based on the school grades and what the player wants

We should see an average of 10-15 players in the portal per school

[georgiafan]

Re: College Football 26 Must Do More With Transfer Por

No doubt the portal needs changes/ tweaks with the good news being the basis is in place. If you take a step back from a video game standpoint and I was one of them. You get attached to these recruits and it’s not fun to lose 50% of the class after 3 years. So that’s the challenge is making it realistic yet still fun. You might even tie the NIL stuff into it somehow.

The #1 thing they have to do is make playing time matter more. Instead of some players having that a dealbreaker then all players should have it. I don’t know I’ve ever had more than 1 or 2 players enter the portal. So I have to do if at the end and hope the game puts them with new teams. Here is some quick hitter things they should do

*Playing time deal breaker for everyone

*Add a encourage transfer button before the season ends which means they hit the portal

*Allow me to force CPU players to enter the portal. This solves CPU teams having 7 good QB’s and can be turned off online leagues. This would fix the entire problem for the hardcore crowd wanting to go through every team

*Add the promise system will you guarantee things if you fail they transfer

*Add a slider system or off switch somehow for the people that might not want it

* add something under the hood as max for positions for cpu teams

* like you said add transfer commits should get off season training