College sports have entered into a new era, one defined by constant player movement.
The NCAA transfer portal, combined with the emphasis on Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities, has dramatically reshaped college athletics in the last five years, particularly basketball and football.
While the changes have given athletes agency in their careers, they have also created new challenges, especially for smaller programs like Mercer University.
Dr. Jeffrey Hugdahl has served as Mercer’s faculty athletics representative since 2004. He has seen the shift firsthand. “It used to be that if you transferred, you had to sit out a year,” Hugdahl said. “That made players really think about whether it was worth it.”
Now, that guardrail is gone, leaving little to no consequences for athletes who transfer year after year.
Within the past several years, NCAA rules changed to allow athletes in sports like football and basketball to transfer once and compete immediately. According to Hugdahl, that single rule change has had massive ripple effects.
“There’s really no impediment to transfer anymore,” he said. “So we’re seeing more and more movement.”
At programs like Mercer, the impact is easy to see. “It’s not unusual now to have what feels like a whole new team every year,” Hugdahl said.
That reality is especially clear within Mercer football.
When former head coach Mike Jacobs left the program in December, accepting the head coaching position at the University of Toledo, a large portion of the roster entered the transfer portal as well, leaving new head coach Joel Taylor with the challenge of rebuilding almost immediately.
“We’ve got about 55 players left,” Taylor said. “And we’ll probably bring in 60 to 70 new guys.”
The majority of these incoming athletes are transfers, 12 coming from Taylor’s former school, the University of West Georgia. The rest of Taylor’s revamped roster is coming from a wide variety of schools such as Florida State, Florida Atlantic University, and Kent State, to name a few.
Rebuilding in Real Time
For Taylor, the transfer portal has turned roster building into a race against time.
“The hardest part is just acquiring players,” he said. “There’s probably over 10,000 athletes in the portal, and with our staff, each coach is evaluating hundreds of players.”
The timing makes it even more difficult. Taylor was hired in mid December, just weeks before the portal window opened, leaving little time to evaluate and recruit.
“You’re behind in high school recruiting when you take a job,” he said. “So you have to attack the portal right away.”
While Taylor said he enjoys the process of building a program, the scale and speed required in today’s system is unlike anything before.
Constant Turnover
The constant roster overhauls year after year have impacted not just team performance, but also the fan experience. In the past, teams were built over time, and athletes usually stayed at the same school for multiple years. That consistency allowed players to develop chemistry with each other and become familiar with fans.
Hugdahl pointed to Mercer’s historic 2014 NCAA Tournament run, when a veteran-led team upset Duke. “That team had seniors who had been playing together for four years,” he said. “The fans knew those players. You just don’t see that as much anymore.”
Taylor agrees that constant movement has changed the foundation of college sports. “It’s huge,” he said. “You lose that attachment. Fans used to connect with players over time, and now that’s harder to build.”
He warned that the long-term impact could extend beyond wins and losses. “If there’s no connection, there’s no loyalty,” Taylor said. “And that’s what made college sports different.”
Small Schools Becoming Farm Teams
For smaller schools, the transfer portal has created another glaring issue, unintentionally becoming a pipeline for larger programs. Programs like Mercer often recruit lesser-known talent, develop that talent, only to then lose it to wealthier programs once players show promise.
The most recent example of this is standout Mercer quarterback Braden Atkinson, who was awarded the Jerry Rice Award for the most outstanding Freshman in FCS football for the 2025 season before entering the transfer portal ahead of his sophomore campaign.
Atkinson was not a highly recruited prospect out of high school, recognized as a zero-star recruit by 247Sports. Atkinson committed to Mercer and instantly performed at a high level, setting the record for most passing yards in program history for a single season.
After showcasing his ability and leading Mercer to their second-ever Southern Conference championship, Atkinson will now be transferring to Oregon State, a much wealthier and well-known football program.
“It’s like we’re a farm team now for the Power Four,” Hugdahl said. “The ones that can actually pay.”
This dynamic has been intensified by NIL deals, which allow athletes to earn money through endorsements and collectives. “When you can transfer to a bigger school and get paid six figures, or even more, that’s a major driver,” Hugdahl said.
Taylor echoed that financial gap as a major challenge. “At the end of the day, coaching matters,” he said. “But having really good players matters more. And when you’re getting outbid, that makes it tough.”
For smaller schools, competing financially is nearly impossible. Hugdahl explained that the majority of Mercer’s NIL funds come from donors.
“We can’t afford to pay that kind of money,” he said. “And even if we could, you have to think about donor fatigue, how long can people keep giving to support that?”
When donors continue giving money to the program to attract better players just for those players to eventually leave for bigger and better opportunities, it puts the donors and the team in a difficult position.
The Balancing Act
For Taylor, the transfer portal presents a constant tension between short-term success and long-term stability.
“My job is to win right now,” he said. “But also to build for long-term success. And doing both, that’s really hard.”
He described the current system as a “balancing act,” where programs must rely on transfers in the short term while trying to build a more sustainable foundation through high school recruiting.
“If a transfer does well, he’s probably going to go back into the portal,” Taylor said. “And if he doesn’t, you’ve got to replace him anyway.”
Because of that cycle, Taylor hopes to eventually rely less on the portal.
“I want to build this thing long-term,” he said. “You can’t do that if you’re constantly starting over.”
Player Freedom
While the transfer portal is often framed as a win for player freedom, Hugdahl believes the reality is more complicated. “It’s positive for the players who go on and make big money,” he said. “But that’s not the majority.”
Many athletes enter the portal without a clear destination, assuming opportunities will come. But that gamble doesn’t always pay off. “If you don’t already have a place to go, there’s a decent chance you’re not going anywhere,” Hugdahl said. “And in some cases, your career could be over.”
Still, from a coaching perspective, there is an understanding that not every transfer decision is made with full clarity. “I do believe a young man at that age doesn’t always fully understand the situation he’s in,” said Taylor. “If he makes the wrong choice the first time, I don’t think he should be penalized for that.”
Taylor understands that countless circumstances can go into an athlete’s decision to transfer schools, including coaching changes or even the cultural fit of a school. “You should get one free transfer, go where you want to go,” he said. “But after that, there should be some structure in place.”
He also emphasized the importance of academics in the conversation, suggesting that earning a degree should change how transfer rules are applied.
“If you graduate, then you can transfer as many times as he wants,” Taylor said.
That perspective reflects a broader academic concern within college athletics. Since the majority of student-athletes will not go on to professional careers, graduation remains the primary long-term outcome. Allowing greater flexibility after earning a degree reinforces the amateurism of college sports and the idea that it should ultimately prioritize education alongside athletic opportunity.
Obstacles in leveling the playing field
In some ways, the transfer portal has allowed smaller schools to bring in experienced players who might not have been available before. But according to Hugdahl, the financial gap created by NIL ultimately outweighs that benefit.
“You can get good players,” he said. “But the NIL part is the problem.”
While smaller programs can frequently attract players looking to move down from bigger schools, usually for better playing time, the best prospects will choose the programs with the capacity to pay them the most money.
Taylor pointed to another structural issue: a lack of financial limits across different levels of college football. “So some programs can spend way more than others, and that makes it hard to compete,” Taylor said.
Taylor explained that all Division I athletic programs have an annual salary cap allowing them to spend up to $20.5 million. While bigger schools have the capacity to spend that amount of money on their programs, schools like Mercer do not.
Changes to come
As college athletics continues to evolve, many believe changes to the system are inevitable.
Hugdahl expects new guidelines to eventually be introduced, possibly limiting transfers or reinstating penalties for multiple moves. “One free transfer makes sense,” he said. “After that, maybe you sit out a year again.”
Taylor agreed that structure is needed and proposed breaking down the salary cap into levels, having different caps for varying levels of Division I football.
Still, meaningful reform may take time.
“It’s going to keep evolving,” Hugdahl said. “I’m just hoping we get some sanity out of all this.”
