The college football transfer portal has radically changed the sport since its inception, and several of the decade’s greatest players have utilized it, including Heisman Trophy winner and the 2024 NFL Draft’s No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. We sifted through our rankings and identified the 15 highest-rated transfer portal entrants of all-time.
The NCAA’s transfer portal opened Oct. 15, 2018, but evolved into its current state in 2021, when the NCAA permitted players to transfer without incurring a one-year penalty in sports where it wasn’t already permitted: football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men’s hockey.
We used our proprietary transfer rating system to identify and rank the transfers on this list. When ratings were tied, we used class rankings and our own intuition to assign each player. It’s important to note that these rankings reflect how each player was regarded when they entered the portal, with no judgment placed on how their careers panned out at new stops.
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Here are the 15 best players to enter the transfer portal, ranked:
15. Henry To’o To’o, LB, Tennessee to Alabama
Transfer Rating (2021): 0.9700
To’oTo’o was the highest-rated transfer in the 2021 class. He earned a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team at Tennessee in 2019 and transferred to Alabama after his sophomore season. He earned second-team All-SEC honors as a junior and made the first team as a senior, racking up 94 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. He went in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and recorded 65 tackles, two tackles for loss and two pass breakups as a rookie last season.
14. Julian Sayin, QB, Alabama to Ohio State
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9800
Sayin, a former five-star high school recruit, rated as the No. 20 overall prospect and No. 3 quarterback in the class of 2024. He transferred from Alabama to Ohio State after Nick Saban’s retirement and figures to be a big piece of the Buckeyes’ quarterback room going forward. Sayin is rated No. 21 on our list of must-watch true freshmen during the 2024 season.
“Sayin gave Ohio State’s offensive staff something to think about during spring after holding his own in the quarterback competition despite the logjam at the position,” 247Sports’ Brad Crawford wrote. “Kansas State transfer Will Howard is the projected starter, but Sayin isn’t far behind him.”
13. EVAN STEWART, WR, TEXAS A&M TO OREGON
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9800
A former five-star recruit, Stewart ranked as the No. 6 overall prospect and No. 1 receiver in the class of 2022. He dealt with inconsistent quarterback play during his two seasons with Texas A&M and caught 38 passes for 514 yards and four touchdowns across eight games last season. He’s poised to put up bigger numbers in an offense that produced a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback last season. Stewart has the sixth-best odds to win the Heisman of any non-quarterback for the 2024 season.
12. Eli Ricks, CB, LSU to Alabama
Transfer Rating (2022): 0.9800
Ricks was tabbed one of 2022’s biggest busts in the transfer portal after an underwhelming one-year stint with the Crimson Tide. He started his tenure in Tuscaloosa in the doghouse after an arrest in May 2022 and never developed into the lock-down cornerback many expected after earning five-star billing in high school. He went undrafted in the 2023 NFL Draft and saw action in 16 games with the Philadelphia Eagles as a rookie last season, notching three pass break-ups.
11. JAHMYR GIBBS, RB, GEORGIA TECH to ALABAMA
Transfer Rating (2022): 0.9800
After two strong seasons at Georgia Tech, Gibbs transferred to Alabama and had the best season of his collegiate career in 2022. He ran 151 times for 926 yards and seven touchdowns while catching 44 passes for 444 yards and three scores en route to second-team All-SEC honors. He backed up his stellar tape with a blazing 4.36s 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. The Detroit Lions selected him No. 12 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft and he put up 1,261 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns as a rookie.
10. ISAIAH BOND, WR, ALABAMA to TEXAS
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9800
Bond was the first Alabama player to hit the transfer portal after Nick Saban announced his retirement Jan. 10. The sophomore finished with 48 catches for 668 yards and four touchdowns this past season and was on the receiving end of the fourth-and-31 touchdown pass in Alabama’s thrilling 27-24 win over Auburn in late November. He said his decision to transfer to Texas was a “business decision.” He and quarterback Quinn Ewers are rated a top-10 dynamic duo for the 2024 season.
9. JORDAN ADDISON, WR, PITTSBURGH to USC
Transfer Rating (2022): 0.9800
Addison took the college football world by storm in 2021, when he caught 100 passes for 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns and won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wide receiver. His subsequent transfer to USC to pair up with Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley stunned the nation. He led the Trojans in three receiving categories with 59 catches, 875 yards and eight touchdowns despite missing three games due to injury and certified himself as a first-round NFL Draft selection along the way.
8. ADONAI MITCHELL, WR, GEORGIA to TEXAS
Transfer Rating (2023): 0.9800
After winning back-to-back national championships at Georgia in 2021 and 2022 — and catching a touchdown in all four of the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff games — Mitchell decided he wanted to be closer to his 2-year-old daughter, Icylinn, who was living with Mitchell’s parents just outside of Houston. He transferred to Texas last offseason and caught 55 passes for 845 yards and 11 touchdowns, including a 1-yard touchdown reception in Texas’ 37-31 CFP semifinal loss to Washington. He went in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
7. Denver Harris, CB, TEXAS A&M to LSU
Transfer Rating (2023): 0.9800
Harris committed to Texas A&M as a top-50 player in the Aggies’ historic 2022 recruiting class. His talent has been overshadowed by multiple controversies since entering the college ranks. He was suspended twice at Texas A&M and was involved in an altercation at an LSU practice ahead of his first and only season with the Tigers in 2023. He saw action in five games in Baton Rouge before missing the final seven contests for undisclosed reasons. He re-entered the portal, this time as the No. 150 overall transfer, this offseason and landed at UTSA.
6. WALTER NOLEN, DL, TEXAS A&M to OLE MISS
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9900
Nolen headlined Texas A&M’s historic 2022 recruiting class. The former five-star and No. 1 overall recruit played in a total of 22 games and made 14 starts in two seasons with the Aggies, recording 66 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss and five sacks. He also notched a pass breakup, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He’s projected to earn second-team All-SEC honors with the Rebels this season. Fellow Ole Miss transfer Princely Umanmielen earned a preseason first-team nod.
5. KADYN PROCTOR, OT, ALABAMA to Iowa to Alabama
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9900
Proctor is the highest-ranked offensive lineman to enter the transfer portal since its inception. He left Alabama for Iowa after Nick Saban’s departure but landed back with the Crimson Tide less than three months later. He started every game at left tackle for the Crimson Tide last season, earning a 66.3 PFF grade, which ranked second nationally among all true freshmen starting offensive linemen. The former five-star prospect ranked as the No. 5 overall recruit and No. 1 offensive tackle in the class of 2023.
4. CALEB DOWNS, S, ALABAMA to Ohio State
Transfer Rating (2024): 0.9900
Ohio State added three of the top-10 transfers from the winter window. That group included Downs, a five-star safety who starred as a true freshman at Alabama in 2023. The 6-foot, 203-pound safety started in all 14 games and earned the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year award in college football. Downs totaled 107 tackles, becoming the first freshman in Crimson Tide history to lead the program in stops. He also had two interceptions, three pass breakups, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
3. TRAVIS HUNTER, CB/WR, JACKSON STATE to COLORADO
Transfer Rating (2023): 0.9900
A lacerated liver may have limited Hunter to nine games, but last offseason’s highest-profile transfer still made a big splash in his first season at Colorado. Hunter starred on both sides of the ball and further asserted himself as an elite prospect for the 2025 NFL Draft. He racked up 50 tackles and three interceptions on defense and caught 57 balls for 721 yards and five touchdowns on offense, averaging a mind-boggling 116 snaps per game.
2. QUINN EWERS, QB, OHIO STATE to TEXAS
Transfer Rating (2022): 1.0000
Ewers has long been considered an elite NFL prospect, projecting as a future first-round pick during his high school career. The former five-star recruit was the No. 1 overall player in the 2021 class, and after initially signing with Ohio State, transferred to Texas as the No. 2 player in the 2022 transfer portal cycle. After an up-and-down first season with the Longhorns, Ewers came into his own in 2023 and threw for 3,479 yards and 22 touchdowns with six interceptions, leading Texas to its first College Football Playoff.
1. CALEB WILLIAMS, QB, OKLAHOMA to USC
Transfer Rating (2022): 1.0000
No question here. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft racked up 4,537 passing yards and 42 touchdowns with just five interceptions throughout a historic Heisman campaign in his first year with the Trojans. He added another 10 touchdowns on the ground. While he fell short of Heisman contention in 2023, Williams still registered 3,633 yards and 30 touchdowns through the air, finishing the campaign as the nation’s seventh-leading passer on a per-game basis.