Gophers' transfer portal class ranks No. 4 in the entire country



Classic Gopher class under Fleck running out and securing the most commits right away, but nobody will give them a 4th star.
 




I'm impressed with our portal navigation to date but this is similar to when we have a top ranked class early in the season due to the number of recruits committed.

Highest rated commit so far is Turner at 0.88. Phillip Daniels was re-ranked at 0.91 as a transfer so technically we're losing a better player than we are replacing them with....just trying to add some context here.
 

The Athletic had a story on the first week of the portal. at the time the story was written, the Gophers had more committed Portal transfers than any other FBS school.

I suspect that will change. the story notes that Jeff Brohm at Louisville brought in 24 portal transfers in 2023 and 32 transfers last season.

also - with teams having to comply with the 105 roster limit at some point in 2025, every new player who joins the team from the portal means that a player from the existing roster has to leave to make the numbers balance. Daniels will not be the last Gopher to leave.
 

I'm impressed with our portal navigation to date but this is similar to when we have a top ranked class early in the season due to the number of recruits committed.

Highest rated commit so far is Turner at 0.88. Phillip Daniels was re-ranked at 0.91 as a transfer so technically we're losing a better player than we are replacing them with....just trying to add some context here.
Why would you just compare Daniels to Turner? Obviously overall the incoming transfers offer far more value then the guys leaving via the portal, on paper anyways.
 

I'm sure we will drop as big names make their decisions but has been impressive to see how quickly we are getting portal commitments. Many of our rivals only have 1-2 at this point whereas we are already in double digits.
 



Give it a few more days … PJ is always out of the blocks early, for very good reasons. The Gophs will drop out of the top 10 like an anchor once the helmet schools wrap up all the top player auctions they are slogging through. Having said that, I am extremely happy with the Gophers’ portal signings to date.
 

Give it a few more days … PJ is always out of the blocks early, for very good reasons. The Gophs will drop out of the top 10 like an anchor once the helmet schools wrap up all the top player auctions they are slogging through. Having said that, I am extremely happy with the Gophers’ portal signings to date.
I think this is where some of the parity in College Football will level out. MN for example can go out early and identify players they want. They can be forthcoming with what they are willing/able to pay. "Take it or leave it, we are managing a salary cap and this is what we value your position at." Everyone on the team knows what they are getting into and I feel that some helmet schools are going to run into a lot more locker-room issues with possible disparities in salaries. Will be interesting to monitor.
 

obviously, no way to know this, but......
I wonder what type of an impact that the direct revenue-sharing payments are making?

this is the first time in the NIL era that a team can (legally) make direct payments to players and manage those payments themselves - instead of working through a collective that is (on paper) not directly affiliated with the school.

so a school can tell a player: "you will get XXX $$$ in a direct payment, plus whatever amount of NIL the collective is able to provide."

of course, it depends on the school having a plan to distribute the revenue-sharing. I would be very curious to know how MN is handling it - how much $$ is going to FB versus other sports.
 

Athletic: College football transfer portal update: Winners after the first week of player movement​

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/59...ource=athletic_targeted_email&userId=11702194

Minnesota

It was a busy weekend for coach P.J. Fleck, who Sunday landed seven of the team’s FBS-leading nine transfer commitments, including two all-conference players from the Group of 5 ranks.

Former Miami (Ohio) receiver Javon Tracy, a first-team All-MAC selection who caught 57 passes for 818 yards in 2024, was the headliner for the Gophers. Running back A.J. Turner, who ran for 864 yards and six touchdowns and earned second-team All-Sun Belt honors at Marshall, is another key addition
 



I'm impressed with our portal navigation to date but this is similar to when we have a top ranked class early in the season due to the number of recruits committed.

Highest rated commit so far is Turner at 0.88. Phillip Daniels was re-ranked at 0.91 as a transfer so technically we're losing a better player than we are replacing them with....just trying to add some context here.
Honest question. What process goes into giving transfers a rating?
 


Honest question. What process goes into giving transfers a rating?
Probably a lot of the same guesswork/projection that goes into high school rankings. Use the kids ranking as a recruit, decide if he is better or worse now and rank accordingly.
 

Why would you just compare Daniels to Turner? Obviously overall the incoming transfers offer far more value then the guys leaving via the portal, on paper anyways.
Because that’s a story about the ranking of our transfer class in a vacuum and I was pointing out that we’re currently in line to be losing a higher level talent than anyone we’ve signed so it’s misleading. I don’t know how to break it down further for you.
 

Honest question. What process goes into giving transfers a rating?
I think there is a pretty good write up on 247 about it and if I’m recalling correctly, a 0.90 or thereabouts is the equivalent of a four star and is projected to be an nfl talent. A five star is projected to to be a future first rounder, so they only award 32 of them per year.

I don’t really agree with the system as it discounts the value of a lot of really productive college players but it does seem like transfers are, as a whole, more lowly rated.

And yes, a guy like Cabana who has mostly sat on the bench to date is not going to have a lot of film to evaluate and would probably take more of a hit.
 


Because that’s a story about the ranking of our transfer class in a vacuum and I was pointing out that we’re currently in line to be losing a higher level talent than anyone we’ve signed so it’s misleading. I don’t know how to break it down further for you.
I don’t think it’s really misleading. Yes it doesn’t give you the full picture of the roster, but they rank what you bring in, just like with high school recruiting, they don’t say yeah but look at who is leaving early and graduating.
 


Ranked 8th now. There's probably 8_20 teams below them who will pass them. Still, top 20 is probably overachieving.
 




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