SEC football’s real portal a year-round cattle auction in disguise

Backchannel portal shapes rosters through quiet offers, NIL leverage, system NCAA pretends doesn’t exist

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman leads his team onto the field prior to the game against the UAB Blazers at Razorback Stadium. | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — College football fans like to think the transfer portal opens Jan. 2.

Bless them. That’s adorable. In the SEC, the thing never closes. Arkansas may have finally discovered this.

The “real portal” has been humming along like a Buc-ee’s on holiday weekend since the moment last season ended — unofficial, unregulated, and somehow treated as a secret despite everyone participating.

Unless a player has re-signed, he’s effectively available. Like sweet tea at a church potluck. Available the way every SEC roster spot seems available if the right number of zeros magically appear.

Calling this thing a “black market” is cute, but inaccurate. Black markets try to hide.

This one has agents, middlemen, parents, cousins, uncles, “mentors,” and whatever that one guy on staff does — all running the same play.

If your favorite coach is complaining about tampering, just picture him saying it into a mirror.

Nobody’s innocent. Only the folks without money stay “clean,” and not because they’re trying. They simply aren’t wealthy enough to get dirty.

The rule everyone actually follows? Don’t be so obvious you force someone to complain on the record.

Every SEC star player — and most of the very-good-not-great ones — has already been approached through some third-party pipeline. Those offers are quietly slid across the table, then brought right back to campus to negotiate with the incumbent program.

Arkansas Razorbacks running back Braylen Russell runs for a big gain against the Tennessee Volunteers at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. | Michael Morrison-Hogs on SI Images

And the NCAA’s official Jan. 2–16 window? That’s just National Signing Day with less ceremony and more accountants.

It's basically a two-week stretch where coaches pretend this is the first time anyone has ever contacted a player. Sure it is.

Nobody should blame coaches for participating. Nobody should blame players for improving their lives.

And nobody should blame agents for doing their jobs. That’s the nature of a marketplace. And this, for better or worse, is the marketplace the sport chose.

Former Hogs coach Sam Pittman once admitted every player who talked to him about leaving already had at least one offer before stepping into his office.

Nothing about that made the Razorbacks special. If anything, it made them ordinary.

And even though tampering is supposedly illegal, nobody seems to get punished. Coaches whine about it as often as they gripe about officiating, but they rarely identify the offending school.

Probably because they don’t want their own phone records ending up as evidence.

Missouri’s Eliah Drinkwitz pretty much hit the nail on the head when he said, “There is no such thing as tampering.”

A parent told him multiple schools called offering specific dollar amounts — but, conveniently, nobody was named.

Good luck proving anything when everything passes through “hypothetical conversations” with people who aren’t technically affiliated with the school.

It’s like trying to arrest humidity in Baton Rouge. You can feel it, but you can’t grab it?

Until someone builds actual rules, the NCAA might as well just declare the whole thing normal and stop acting shocked when the sport follows the incentives it created.

Arkansas Razorbacks offensive lineman Patrick Kutas in practice on Aug. 1, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. | Andy Hodges-Hogs on SI Images

Portal winners eat well, portal losers go hungry

January’s portal window isn’t about sorting out movement. It’s about confirming which deals are done and which players misjudged their value.

Good players thrive. Average players disappear.

About half the players who jumped into the portal last year found no takers. They were roster cuts or college football’s version of a yard sale.

The NIL era and immediate eligibility were meant to give players the same mobility coaches enjoy. What folks forgot was good coaches get better jobs. Average coaches get fired.

Now players get the same treatment.

There was a time not long ago when guaranteeing four-year scholarships mattered. Today, that feels like a bedtime story you’d tell recruits just to help them sleep before early signing day.

Arkansas knows how this new system works. The Razorbacks have watched a variety of coaches navigate roster building where loyalty lasts only until another program waves a better number.

New chapter#committedtothesip pic.twitter.com/JmEqqaehaY

— Patrick Kutas (@pwk54) December 13, 2024

Maybe the expanded 105-man roster limit will protect the scout-team warrior — the guy who holds the locker room together, but collects NIL earnings that wouldn’t cover a gas station hot dog.

But if players keep hopping from school to school based on whomever offers more, the long-term consequences might not be as fun as the short-term bank statements. The old system had its problems, but at least it had consistency. And envelopes.

Remember Cam Newton’s old rumored asking price? Around $250,000 — about $370,000 today. In 2025, Newton would be a $4 million product. Inflation is undefeated.

Meanwhile, coaches making $11 million insist they don’t have “resources” to keep a player from leaving. Hard time summoning sympathy there.

And despite every complaint, America remains glued to the TV. College football broke viewership records in 2025.

When Arkansas played Texas, 5.6 million watched. When the Hogs faced Memphis, 2.1 million still tuned in. Chaos sells.

The SEC sells more.

Turns out the country doesn’t mind the circus. They just want the elephants to keep entertaining.

Key takeaways

• The real transfer portal functions as a year-round SEC-style marketplace driven by NIL leverage and quiet offers.
• January’s portal window is simply the public confirmation of deals already negotiated privately.
• The system rewards top players and squeezes out average ones, reshaping rosters across the sport.