BYU Football Brought In One of the Smallest Transfer Classes in the Big 12

The transfer portal has completely changed the way college football rosters are constructed. Some programs like Colorado have leaned heavily into the portal. Other programs like Clemson have hardly used the transfer portal at all. The best teams in the country have seemingly found ways to not rely too much on the transfer portal. That's the stance the BYU staff has taken over the last two years: use the portal to patch the roster, not construct the roster. Roster continuity is one of the most valuable commodities in college sports today.

BYU wants to construct its roster mostly from the high school ranks and supplement with the transfer portal. The data suggests that BYU executed that strategy this offseason. The Cougars brought in one of the smallest transfer classes in the Big 12 with 13 total commits. That was the third lowest in the Big 12 behind only Iowa State (8) and TCU (12).

Here are the transfer portal classes from smallest to largest in the Big 12

1. Iowa State - 8
2. TCU - 12
3. BYU - 13
4. ASU - 16
5. Cincinnati - 16
6. Kansas State - 16
7. Baylor - 20
8. Texas Tech - 21
9. Utah - 21
10. Arizona - 27
11. Kansas - 27
12. Colorado - 30
13. Houston - 30
14. Oklahoma State - 40
15. UCF - 40
16. West Virginia - 52

West Virginia brought in an astounding number of transfers with 52. Rich Rod turned over the majority of the roster in his first offseason back in Morgantown. 52 incoming transfers is one of the five largest transfer classes in the country.

Generally speaking, the teams near the bottom of the standings last season brought in the most transfers. Those teams were looking to overhaul their 2024 rosters since, obviously, things didn't go their way a season ago.

The teams near the top of the standings last season brought in fewer transfers (BYU, Iowa State, Kansas State) with the exception of Colorado. Deion Sanders has relied on the transfer portal to construct his roster since he arrived in Boulder.