Close to 200 Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks entered the NCAA transfer portal by the deadline last week as Friday night turned to Saturday morning.
That doesn’t mean it was a buyer’s market.
The top programs in the Power Four conferences — the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten and Southeastern — are paying a premium for players at the most important position on the field. Experienced starters commanded financial packages worth north of $3 million (via NIL deals and/or revenue-sharing agreements), according to media reports.
Among the 68 quarterbacks who were starters in 2025 at Power Four programs and powerful independent Notre Dame, 24 are out of eligibility, 16 entered the portal and 28 indicated they would return to the teams they played for during the 2025 season, which wrapped up Monday night with Indiana’s 27-21 win against Miami in the College Football Playoff national championship game.
On paper, that would leave 40 open starter’s jobs in the power ranks in 2026. In reality, many of those have been spoken for by starters moving from one school to another.
Here’s rundown of the top transfer quarterbacks in this cycle, based on 247Sports.com’s portal rankings, with their 2026 school listed.
Sam Leavitt, LSU: Newly hired LSU coach Lane Kiffin was able to swoop in, land a commitment from Leavitt and fend off multiple suitors to sign the top-ranked player in the portal. A foot injury limited Leavitt to seven games for Arizona State this past season, but in 2024, he led the Sun Devils to an 11-2 record, the Big 12 championship and their first appearance in the College Football Playoff. He threw for 4,513 yards and 34 touchdowns with nine interceptions in 20 games at Arizona State.
Brendan Sorsby, Texas Tech: At a reported $5 million, Sorsby received the most lucrative financial deal of the portal period to move from Cincinnati to his native Lone Star State and join the reigning Big 12 champions for his final season of college football. In 35 career games at Indiana and Cincinnati, including 31 starts, he has thrown for 7,208 yards and 60 touchdowns and rushed for 1,295 rushing yards and 22 scores.
Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State: Mestemaker is following coach Eric Morris from North Texas to Oklahoma State after one of the most productive freshman seasons in college football history. He led the nation with 4,379 yards and 34 touchdowns passing and will have three years of eligibility. Also following Morris to Stillwater is North Texas offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Sean Brophy.
DJ Lagway, Baylor: A change of scenery — in this case, heading back to the state where he was a high school star — could do wonders for Lagway after two seasons at Florida, where he won his last four starts in 2024 but was 4-8 in 2025. Injuries hampered Lagway, and Gators fans turned on him after he threw five interceptions in a loss to LSU and three in a loss to Kentucky. The 6-foot-3, 247-pounder’s raw talent is unquestioned.
Dylan Raiola, Oregon: Raiola was the highest-rated recruit in Nebraska history but was just 13-9 as the starter the past two seasons and took 54 sacks. His 2025 season ended with a broken leg against the University of Southern California on Nov. 1. With incumbent starter Dante Moore returning to Oregon instead of declaring for the NFL draft, Raiola is expected to be the backup this year before taking over in 2027.
Darian Mensah, TBD: Mensah left Duke in a lurch when he announced he would enter the portal just ahead of the deadline. Duke sued Mensah on Tuesday for breach of contract, and a judge signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday that prevents Mensah from enrolling elsewhere. His expected landing place is Miami, if he gets through the litigation. Interestingly, Mensah already has helped the Hurricanes by leading Duke past Virginia in the ACC championship game, one of the factors that favored Miami making the CFP’s 12-team field.
Husan Longstreet, LSU: Longstreet will be backing up Leavitt after appearing in four games as a freshman at USC. He was a five-star prospect, the No. 1 player in California and the nation’s No. 3 quarterback coming out of high school in Corona.
Deuce Knight, Ole Miss: Knight, who appeared in two games at Auburn as a freshman, jumped at the opportunity to return to his home state when the NCAA denied Trinidad Chambliss’ petition for a sixth season of eligibility. Chambliss has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in Mississippi State court, but regardless of what happens with him, the Rebels had to get a quarterback when Austin Simmons (who began the season as the starter, got hurt in the second game, then became the backup) transferred to Missouri.
Byrum Brown, Auburn: Brown followed Alex Golesh from South Florida and will enter his fourth season running the offense for the Tigers’ new head coach. Brown led FBS quarterbacks with 42 total touchdowns and averaged 347.2 yards of offense per game in 2025. He will be joined on the Plains by six receivers who also transferred from South Florida.
Rocco Becht, Penn State: Becht won 26 of his 39 starts for Iowa State and went with head coach Matt Campbell and offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser to Happy Valley for his final season of college football. He led the Cyclones to the Big 12 title game in 2024 and had a nation-leading streak of 22 games over two seasons with at least one touchdown pass.