Across the country, high school football players on Wednesday will sit at tables in packed gymnasiums, show off a hoodie or hat of their college choice and put pen to paper on their national letter of intent.
Increasingly, though, the start of college football's early signing period isn't only for the 18-year-olds. Coaches are turning to the transfer portal — a database in which players can declare their intentions to switch schools — to augment and even remake their rosters.
"It's part of the deal. Get used to it,'' coach P.J. Fleck told fans during the Gophers' Coaches Caravan last spring. "Transfer doesn't mean bad. We've benefited from it, but we've also had to give some.''
The NCAA in April 2021 implemented the one-time transfer rule in which players no longer must sit out a season before playing at their new school. A second seismic shift came three months later, when the NCAA allowed athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). Those NIL deals, organized by a third party but mainly encouraged by schools, often play a key role in recruiting.
While the bulk of the Gophers' 2023 recruiting class will be high school players — 20 of the 25 players expected to sign Wednesday are preps — older, more developed transfer players can bring an immediate influx of talent to a roster.
Need a linebacker? The Gophers did in 2021, and Abilene Christian's Jack Gibbens immediately became their leading tackler. Want to upgrade the wide receiver corps? Fleck landed all-conference wideouts in UNC Charlotte's Elijah Spencer and Western Michigan's Corey Crooms over the past few days, hoping they'll be plug-and-play performers in 2023.
Gone, in large part, is the stigma that a transfer athlete is a disgruntled player who is a risk to cause problems. Often, the transfer is merely looking for a chance to play. "These days, kids aren't willing to sit behind somebody,'' Fleck said. "It's a way of life.''
A busy December