re: School can sign as many transfers as possible but only 7 to match portal losses, right?

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One thing I haven’t seen discussed much, though, is that the new rule allows for a one-time transfer with immediate eligibility. That means that any players you take from the portal cannot transfer again without either getting a hardship waiver or sitting out a year. So it will be interesting to see the attrition rates over time for transfers vs. high school recruits under the new rules.

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that fact should be setting off alarm bells in Indianapolis and light bulbs should be going off in every ops building. And I'm talking going forward after this year with the 7 extra. I'll put it as bluntly as possible:

1. For a recruit we sign, anytime during his eligibility he can transfer and be eligible immediately at his new team. No harm, no foul... regardless if he signs an LOI or not. He takes a spot in the 25.

2. A transfer in will have less incentive to transfer out because they will have to sit, just like the original LOI system put in place. He will count against the same 25 limit.

So if transfers are depleting your numbers as a program, you are better off not recruiting some high schoolers and using those spots for transfers because, in the end, you are more likely to get 3 years out of them rather than 1 for the transfer out.

And with the first transfer being a freebee- you'll see more higher rated players (the same ones we chased as recruits) in the portal over time. Still plenty of backups, but many of those will be highly rated freshmen that thought they should've gotten playing time and are now bolting.

ETA: and the contact rules for a player in the portal are much more liberal than the rules concerning a recruit in high school. It takes much less resources and is much easier to court a transfer than a high schooler. This is just lagniappe.

ETA #2: and LSU better lean how to medically retire players (who experience a miraculous recovery later) PDQ or we will never catch up.