10 transfer portal thoughts on Ohio State: Numbers, strategy, and how it compares to everyone else

The Buckeyes have lost more players to the portal than in any other offseason.

Ohio State has lost more players in the transfer portal than in years past. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State)

10 thoughts on the transfer portal as of Jan. 11, with the window for Buckeyes to enter the portal closing on Friday. As of late Saturday night, 28 Ohio State players had gone into the portal, while the Buckeyes had added five new players.

1. Ohio State’s focus in roster building has been retention. After the 2023 season, the Buckeyes had 10 players with real NFL decisions and kept eight of them in Columbus for 2024 with a commitment of NIL money.

After the 2024 season, of the 34 combined schools in the Big Ten and SEC, 24 of them lost at least 20 players in the transfer portal, according to the transfer tracker at On3. Of those, 10 schools lost at least 30 transfers.

Ohio State lost just 16 players, and only 12 of them were actual scholarship players. Texas also lost 16, while Georgia, Oregon and Penn State lost 18. The Buckeyes retained well.

The transfer portal works both ways — out of the program and in. If the Buckeyes weren’t adding as many transfers, it’s because they weren’t losing as many. You could have argued that no top program kept its important players more successfully than Ohio State. When we did our series on roster building in September, retention was one of the three areas — with recruiting and transfers — and it was what the Buckeyes did best.

2. The Buckeyes didn’t lose players who had made major contributions — none of the 12 scholarship transfers they lost last season were among their Top 30 players in snaps in 2024. And, just as importantly, they lost very few future starters on the way up. Guys weren’t leaving before they developed.

NIL came into effect in the summer of 2021, when players could now be paid within NCAA rules. In the first four offseasons after NIL, Ohio State lost a total of seven scholarship true freshmen to the transfer portal. Two were quarterbacks with unusual circumstances — Quinn Ewers left in the 2022 offseason to go home to Texas, and Air Noland left in 2025 since Julian Sayin had become a Buckeye. Three more who left were receivers in a crowded position room.

This offseason, the Buckeyes have seen seven first-year players hit the portal — as many in one year as in the previous four combined. They include receiver Quincy Porter, safety Faheem Delane and defensive tackle Jarquez Carter, all of whom projected to have real futures as Buckeyes. The others are receiver Bodpegn Miller, defensive lineman Maxwell Roy, and offensive linemen Jayvon McFadden and Isaiah Kema. Losing guys who haven’t played and are still just getting their feet wet feels like wasted time, especially with Top 100 recruits like Porter and Delane. Acquiring them came at a cost (financially and in roster spots), and nothing came of it. That’s a new frustrating reality to wrap your head around, one that makes you wonder what the point of recruiting might be.