2024 college football winter transfer portal winners, losers - ESPN

After three weeks of chaos across college football, portal season is coming to a close Saturday.

Players face a Saturday deadline to enter their name in the transfer portal. They'll continue to take official visits and can make their final decisions at any time, and last year's cycle stretched deep into January thanks to belated coaching changes at Alabama, Michigan and several other schools. But barring a coaching change, if players don't enter the portal now, they'll have to wait until April 16 for the next transfer window to open.

More than 2,000 FBS scholarship players have entered their names into the portal since Aug. 1 to explore transfers, and more than 800 have committed to or signed with their next school.

Who's currently thriving and building impressive transfer recruiting classes to make a run in 2025? Who got hit the hardest during three long weeks of unpredictable departures? Going into deadline day, we're breaking down five early winners and losers from the 2024-25 portal cycle.

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Winners
Losers

Some programs are winning battles for some of the most coveted players in the transfer portal and raising their expectations for 2025 with the talent they've already accumulated. Lots of teams are loading up with newcomers right now, but these five have stood out so far.

Transfers in: 13

Key additions: WR Barion Brown (Kentucky), WR Nic Anderson (Oklahoma), CB Mansoor Delane (Virginia Tech), DE Patrick Payton (Florida State), OL Braelin Moore (Virginia Tech)

LSU was not as aggressive as most of its SEC peers when it came to recruiting the portal for its 2024 team. This offseason, it's a different story. Coach Brian Kelly and his staff are assembling a transfer class that sends a clear message the