These Group of Five teams boosted College Football Playoff hopes with strong transfer portal hauls

The NCAA transfer portal both gives and takes away from Group of Five programs. While schools at that level are liable to lose their top players to Power Four programs every year, the portal also allows those same schools to fill the holes by snagging athletes that may not have panned out at other programs or rising stars from the FCS level. 

This ability to rebuild a roster with experienced players is especially important in a 12-team College Football Playoff era where the Group of Five is guaranteed at least one automatic bid. Last season, Boise State rode star running back Ashton Jeanty to a Mountain West championship and a first-round bye in the playoff. 

While the increased opportunity is great, especially since the Group of Five was largely excluded from the previous playoff format, it still means that 65 teams are all essentially vying for one postseason spot. That makes proper utilization of the portal, where a team can immediately upgrade its roster, even more important.

With that in mind, here’s a look at four Group of Five programs that boosted their College Football Playoff stock with strong transfer portal hauls entering the 2025 season. 

James Madison coach Bob Chesney is no stranger to the postseason — he led Holy Cross to four FCS Playoff appearances and guided the Dukes to their first bowl win in program history last season — and JMU’s outlook should only improve as Chesney continues to build the roster in his image. His squad looks like a real competitor in the Sun Belt after strong transfer hauls in both the winter and spring windows. 

Perhaps the most important get of the entire cycle was former UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka, who comes with some off-field baggage after he left the Rebels in the middle of the 2024 season amid an NIL dispute. If anyone can get Sluka right, it’s Chesney. After all, the two posted a 28-9 record together at Holy Cross from 2020-23 before Sluka took his talents to UNLV. Sluka was also a two-time All-Patriot League selection and the 2023 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year under Chesney’s guidance. 

Chesney and his staff also spent a majority of the offseason surrounding Sluka with a ton of intriguing weapons. James Madison added Richmond’s two leading receivers from the 2024 season — Landon Ellis and Nick DeGennaro — and Iowa State’s Isaiah Alston is an intriguing newcomer from the spring portal. Though the 6-foot-4 wideout didn’t make any headway with the Cyclones, he did have 1,031 yards and six touchdowns receiving in four seasons at Army, which is impressive given the triple-option scheme that service academies run. So long as James Madison can get its defense sorted after losing some notable starters, the Dukes will be a serious Group of Five threat. 

Memphis entered the 2024 season with College Football Playoff hopes thanks to an experienced roster bolstered by transfers at areas of need, but the Tigers fell just short of that goal while still winning 11 games. Almost every key player from that 2024 roster is gone; in fact, the Tigers do not return a single player that started on defense in last season’s opener. So, a strong transfer haul was imperative if Memphis wants to sustain the recent success it has had under coach Ryan Silverfield. 

Thanks to that success, and a robust NIL structure, Memphis’ coaching staff answered the bell by landing over 30 transfers. Though the roster overhaul could take some time to jell into a competent whole, there’s plenty to be optimistic about. It starts at quarterback, where Memphis has to replace a program legend in QB Seth Henigan. The Tigers brought in Nevada transfer Brendon Lewis, who brings five years of collegiate experience to the position. He’s a plus athlete that’s at his best on the run, and though he still needs to take major strides as a passer, he has seen some improvement throwing the ball in each of the last two seasons. 

That aforementioned defense might be composed entirely of transfers. That includes a 2024 FCS All-American at edge rusher in A.J. Pena, who had 12.5 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss at Rhode Island last season, and several players, like Rayyan Buell (Colorado) and Marcus Burris Jr. (Indiana) with Power Four experience. The secondary should also be in good shape with newcomers like Omarion Cooper (Florida State) and Chauncey Logan Jr., who had one interception and three pass breakups at James Madison last season, in the mix. 

Tulane lost some significant players to the transfer portal, including starting quarterback Darian Mensah, who left for Duke, and top running back Makhi Hughes, who went to Oregon. In the wake of Mensah’s departure, Tulane is now embroiled in the Group of Five’s most interesting quarterback competition. Exiting spring, it looked like the Green Wave narrowed their options to a pair of transfers in Kadin Semonza, who was the 2024 MAC Freshman of the Year at Ball State, and Donovan Leary from Illinois. 

Then Tulane made a spring splash by landing Iowa transfer Brendan Sullivan, who started three games for the Hawkeyes last season and eight games at Northwestern from 2022-23. He could shake things up when fall camp rolls around. Regardless of who Tulane settles on, it won’t lack options. 

Though it should come as no surprise given coach Jon Sumrall’s background, defense is where Tulane did its best work in the offseason. Appalachian State transfer Santana Hopper should be one of the Group of Five’s best defenders by season’s end. He was a 2024 All-Sun Belt first team member after logging 8.5 tackles for loss, five sacks and two forced fumbles. The Green Wave also added some big Power Four bodies along the line with standouts like Trevon McAlpine (Texas Tech). Cornerback LJ Green, who had six pass breakups and two interceptions at Troy last season, is worth keeping an eye on. 

UNLV 

UNLV flirted with the College Football Playoff last season and promptly lost coach Barry Odom to Purdue. No matter; the Rebels made one of the biggest splashes of the 2024-25 coaching carousel by drawing Dan Mullen out of his media sojourn. He immediately went to work restructuring UNLV’s roster in his image by adding almost 40 transfers in his first few months on the job. 

There’s reason to be excited about the pairing of Mullen and Virginia transfer Anthony Colandrea. Mullen’s the type of coach that can maximize Colandrea’s gunslinging and playmaking abilities while cutting down on some of the mistakes that the young signal caller is prone to. UNLV also earned signatures from five transfer wide receivers, all of whom were blue-chip prospects out of high school. In fact, 15 of UNLV’s transfers were either four- or five-star prospects out of high school. Though they have yet to really produce at the collegiate level, it’s never a bad idea for a Group of Five program to take a swing on upside. 

Colandrea will be playing behind an almost entirely rebuilt offensive line that includes the 2024 FCS Rimington Award winner in Reid Williams, a former rugby player and starter at Temple in James Faminu and Malik McGowan, who brings plenty of Power Five experience after playing in 39 games at North Carolina from 2020-24. So long as all the new pieces can come together, Mullen should have UNLV right in the thick of the Mountain West again.