Deion Sanders endorses Carl Reed's take on "4000" college athletes entering the transfer portal

Colorado coach Deion Sanders backed college football analyst Carl Reed’s views on the rising trend of 4,000 college athletes entering the transfer portal. This week, on his “Coach Reed Live” podcast, Reed shared a reality check for these players:

“Every deficiency that you have in your game is going to follow you to your next location,” Reed said. “And you probably won’t play there either unless you can fix it.”

According to Reed, some top players leave for millions, but that's a small group.

“Now those guys who are playing great ball, then they leaving because they can get millions of dollars in other places — that's a small group of guys. We're not talking to those guys, right? Out of the 4,000 guys that are going to go in the transfer portal this year, we talking to 3,900 of you, right?”

Sanders, commenting on a clip of the podcast posted on X, agreed with Reed’s take by writing:

“Preach.”

According to Sports Illustrated, 16 Buffaloes players entered the transfer portal on the first day it opened this spring.

However, Reed’s message to players was to not make emotional decisions and jump into the portal without thinking.

“Do not give up your scholarship. Do not give up your housing. Make sure that you talk to somebody,” Reed said.

CFB analysts also noted that most players don’t start as true freshmen. Only a few get playing time their first year, but as soon as some players don’t start or drop to No. 2, they’re ready to leave.

Transfer portal window for college football/basketball players to be shortened

The NCAA Division I Committee's Tuesday vote officially shortens the transfer window for college football and basketball players, altering the landscape of athlete movement. This change, set to start this season, reduces the window to 30 days.

In the past two years, the window went from 60 to 45 days, and now it’s down to 20 days in the winter and 10 in the spring. For football, the new dates are Dec. 9 to Dec. 28, and Apr. 16 to Apr. 25.

Additionally, all sports will get a 30-day transfer window if a head coach leaves, starting the day after their departure is announced. Another idea is to eliminate the spring transfer window altogether.

Last year, over 2,800 FBS scholarship players entered the transfer portal, with 2,707 actually making the move. That’s about 25% of all FBS scholarship players, according to SB Nation.

In another shift, football teams will soon face roster limits tied to a settlement with the NCAA. Right now, teams can have 85 scholarship players, but some teams total around 120 with walk-ons. Soon, the roster limit will be capped at 105, which includes only scholarship athletes.