College football transfer portal team rankings for 9 best men’s classes so far

As we wait for next Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship showdown between Miami and Indiana, the stage for the 2026 season is being set with several key players finding new homes through the transfer portal. The portal officially opened on Friday, January 2 and with the NCAA eliminating the spring window this year, programs are hustling to get their new additions signed and sealed before the portal closes on Friday, January 16*.

We’ll take a look at 247 Sports’ transfer portal rankings and go over nine of the top classes at the moment. There is a good chance that one of these teams will be in next year’s national championship game because of the moves they are making as we speak.

*Miami and Indiana players will get an extra five-day window following the national championship game

1. LSU

LSU arming Lane Kiffin with $25-30 million NIL budget meant that he had a mandate to attract top talent the moment he touched down in Baton Rouge. Well, so far so good, as he currently has LSU on track to landing the No. 1 transfer portal class according. 26 players have committed to the Tigers since the portal opened and this high volume of new additions was needed for a program hoping for an immediate turnaround next season. It’s a good mix of Power Four talents like Ole Miss receiver Winston Watkins and high-production Group of Five standouts like Boise State safety Ty Benefield. He was also able to retain running back Caden Durham, a major retention considering that he’s led the team in rushing for the past two years.

The biggest addition, of course, was Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, who was rated as the top prospect in the portal and was being pursued by the likes of Miami and Tennessee. Leavitt helped lead the Sun Devils to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal in 2024 and appeared in seven games this season before a foot injury that required surgery sidelined him for the rest of the year. He has until September to fully recover and as a multi-year starter with CFP experience, he has a chance to become an even bigger star in 2026. It worked for the last guy that transferred from Tempe to Baton Rouge. And in the likely event that he is one-and-done at LSU, Kiffin has already made sure to line up his replacement by acquiring former five-star USC QB Husan Longstreet in the portal.

2. Texas

Texas entered 2025 with considerable hype as the preseason No. 1 team in the country and ended up underachieving with a Citrus Bowl victory capping a 10-3 campaign. A good season for most, but a massive disappointment for a program that was on the doorstep of the national title game the two years prior. So they got active in the portal and some of the new Longhorns headed to Austin may be enough to comfortably push them into next year’s playoff field.

Arch Manning improved down the stretch of his first year as the starter and Texas’ staff has clearly made sure that he has a full arsenal of weapons at his disposal in 2026. Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman is the crown jewel of this portal group and he’ll form a powerful 1-2 punch standing alongside All-SEC wideout Ryan Wingo. UT’s run game was hamstrung by backfield injuries in 2025, so they beefed up the depth by adding NC State’s Hollywood Smothers and Arizona State’s Raleek Brown, both first-team all-conference running backs in their respective leagues. Throw in high-production defensive adds like Pitt linebacker Rasheem Biles and you now have a roster that will legitimately warrant the offseason hype coming their way.

3. Penn State

Penn State experienced a massive exodus following James Franklin’s firing and Matt Campbell had no choice but to bring in a massive portal class to fill the gaps. He’s done just that in just a few weeks and you can pretty much call State College “Ames East” in 2026 as 22 of his 35 transfer commits are following him from Iowa State. The notable Cyclone players making this move includes quarterback Rocco Becht, leading rusher Carson Hansen, the leading receivers Brett Eskildsen and Chase Sowell, and leading tacklers Marcus Neal Jr. and Kooper Ebel.

Directly importing players from their previous schools is a strategy that has allowed coaches to hit the ground running in their new jobs during the portal era and we’re seeing this play out with several former James Madison players starring for Indiana. We have an entire offseason to speculate how Campbell’s first season in Happy Valley will go, but it will certainly help to have a bunch of players who are already familiar with his systems.

4. Oklahoma State

Similar to Campbell, new Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris has had to immediately flip most of the roster in the portal and to no surprise, 17 of his current 49 portal commits are following him from North Texas. Chief among them is quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who went from a walk-on that didn’t even start in high school to leading the nation in passing in 2025. Mestemaker was an overnight sensation for the Mean Green and his arrival should inject some energy into an OSU program that flatlined in Mike Gundy’s final years. We’ll see if Morris’ Cowboys will be able to become a Big 12 contender in Year 1, but they at least should be really fun to watch.

5. Ole Miss

Ole Miss nearly made the national title game out of pure spite in the aftermath of the Lane Kiffin saga and with all of that in the rearview mirror, Pete Golding can start putting his fingerprints on the program. Auburn quarterback is the most notable portal addition and the former five-star prep prospect from the state of Mississippi is a good fallback plan as Trinidad Chambliss’ eligibility battle heads to the courts. Florida State safety Edwin Joseph also has a chance to be an immediate difference maker after posting five passes defensed and three interceptions in 2025.

6. Kentucky

Kentucky having a top-10 portal class at the moment is impressive considering that new head coach Will Stein spent a month pulling double-duty with his former gig as Oregon’s offensive coordinator in the playoffs. Notre Dame quarterback Kenny Minchey is the headliner for this class, but Stein has made sure to get him protection on the offensive line in Tennessee’s Lance Heard, Baylor’s Coleton Price, and Ohio State’s Tegra Tshabola. Texas linebacker Elijah Barnes is another name to watch as he can become a defensive star in the SEC.

7. Texas A&M

Texas A&M made the program’s very first playoff appearance in 2025 and have used the portal to fill some holes to make a return trip to the bracket next season a reality. The team lost out in the Cam Coleman sweepstakes and got a good consolation prize in 6’4” Alabama receiver Isaiah Horton, who led the Crimson Tide with eight receiving touchdowns. They pulled another former Alabama player in offensive tackle Wilkin Formby while on the other side of the line of scrimmage, Northwestern edge rusher Anto Saka is already touted as being the next star for Texas A&M’s defense.

8. Texas Tech

Texas Tech made waves with its massive spending in the transfer portal last offseason and it paid immediate dividends with a Big 12 title and a trip to the CFP quarterfinals…where it was shut out by Oregon in the Orange Bowl. The Red Raiders are back to assembling another strong portal class and this time around spent big on a quarterback in Cincinnati’s Brandon Sorsby, a signing that they celebrated with a Billboard in Times Square. And if you’re looking for the next defensive superstars for Tech, keep an eye out for Wake Forest defensive lineman Mateen Ibirogba and Miami-Ohio edge rusher Adam Trick.

9. Indiana

Indiana is 60 minutes away from the program’s first national championship and Curt Cignetti is already assembling a portal haul that can keep the success going into 2026 and beyond. The head coach has often said that he values production over potential when evaluating players, so it makes sense that he has a veteran quarterback in TCU’s Josh Hoover lined up to replace Fernando Mendoza next year. Hoover has posted back-to-back 3,000-yard passing seasons for the Horned Frogs and he will be throwing passes to wideout transfer Nick Marsh, who led Michigan State in receiving in 2025. Also keep watch for Kansas State edge rusher Tobi Osunsanmi, who has combined for 7.5 sacks over the last two seasons.