Portaling Out: How Does Oregon Compare to Other Playoff Teams?

It’s portal season and the Oregon Ducks have 7 players who have thrown their name into the ring. Dan Lanning has famously said that he has never lost a starter to the portal, and so far that still holds true. The guys no longer with the team range from “borderline rotation” to “almost never see the field.”

How does this compare to other teams who are still in the playoff?

Ole Miss is the only team without anyone in the portal, which is surprising considering they lost their coach. Every other team in the playoff has at least 1 player in the portal, but only Oregon and Texas Tech have more than four. Comically it’s those two teams facing off next Thursday.

Indiana and Ohio State each have 1 player in the portal, Georgia and Alabama have 2, and Miami has 4. Oregon and Texas Tech both have 7. Are any of these teams losing key players though?

Playoff Teams Haven’t Lost Anyone Important  

This might not come as a surprise to anyone, but none of the remaining playoff teams have lost a key player to the portal. Oregon has, however, lost the player with the most snaps out of all the guys in the portal. Kingston Lopa has 169 snaps on defense this year for the Ducks. The next highest in snap count is Daniel Harris for Georgia with 138.

Not only does Oregon have the player with the highest snap count, but overall they have the most cumulative snaps leaving at 527. The next highest is Texas Tech at 151 total snaps, and that’s with 7 players in the portal. Also of note, I only looked at offensive and defensive snaps. I left out special teams.

Also surprisingly, almost all of Oregon’s players in the portal are from the defense. Four cornerbacks and one safety, as well as a receiver (Justius Lowe) and an offensive lineman (Lipe Moala).

Is this going to have much of an impact on the Ducks going forward? Probably not. Dakoda Fields, Jahlil Florence, and Solomon Davis have barely seen the field this year. Sione Laulea has 116 snaps but he hadn’t played since Rutgers. Moala only has 10 snaps this year. Lowe is less of a loss after Dakorien Moore and Gary Bryant Jr returned from injuries.

Lopa is the guy that could be missed, but 169 snaps is pretty far down the depth chart. Dillon Thieneman has 691 snaps this year and Aaron Flowers has 620. Lopa has the 20th most snaps on the defense this year.

The Cost of Doing Business for Oregon

In the age of the portal, this is just how things work now. Several of these guys are probably going to end up at Cal with Tosh Lupoi. Oregon is likely to be active in the portal again this year, and they will need spots for all their recruits and new additions. That means guys have to go.

Oregon had the 4^th best transfer class this year with 11 new players. They had 18 guys portal out. The 2026 portal opens on January 2^nd and players have until the 16^th to put their name in. You can expect to see a few more guys added to this list before the end of the month.

Texas Tech had the top transfer class this season. They had 31 players move on and 21 transfer in. It’s likely that they also will have quite a few guys leave, but it seems like most rotation guys are waiting until after the playoff to enter the portal.

Oklahoma and Texas A&M are both eliminated, and their teams have both lost some significant players already. The Sooners have 8 guys in the portal, and a couple of them have played more than 200 snaps this season. TAMU has six players in the portal and one of them is a 4-star TE with 475 snaps (Theo Melin Ohrstrom).

Portal Giveth and Portal Taketh Away

While we expect Oregon to be active in the portal this year, they have yet to lose a significant player to transfer. The guys who transfer in have mostly all been extremely successful with the Ducks, and most of the guys who have left are not players that had a clear path to significant playing time.

That’s not the case with some of the other teams who had top 10 transfer classes this year.

LSU had the 2^nd best transfer class this time last year. They had a rough season and they fired their coach. They have already lost 11 players to the portal. Several of them are offensive linemen who had close to 300 snaps or more. Two of them are 4-star prospects (Carius Curne and DJ Chester). Their cumulative snap count from their portal players is 1,763.

Missouri had the 6^th best class at the beginning of the year. Their cumulative snap count is 1,922 for the 9 players they have transferring out. Three of those guys are 500 snap or more players. Overall they have five players that are 4-star prospects in the portal. That kind of talent is going to be hard to replace.

Lastly, Auburn had the 7^th best transfer class. They have 21 kids in the portal right now. Their cumulative snap count is 4,427. Five of those players were 4-star prospects. They have an OT in the portal with 823 snaps this season (Xavier Chaplin).

Overall Quality of Players is Fairly Low

I mentioned several 4-star players from Missouri and Auburn, but the vast majority of the guys going into the portal are 3-star players. There is only a couple of 5-star players in the portal currently. That might change after the playoff ends, but this has been in steady decline year after year.

In 2024 there was an abundance of former 5-star players in the portal. Caleb Downs, Walter Nolen, and Julian Sayin all hit the portal that year, as well as Evan Stewart and Dante Moore with the Ducks. Since then we only saw a handful last year (Carson Beck and Nico Iamaleava as examples) and only a couple so far in 2026. Will that change? It seems unlikely. Teams are more willing to open up the wallet to retain their talent.

Oregon has excelled at keeping their guys home. Lanning bragged about never losing a starter, but so far he hasn’t even lost a guy that they claimed had a clear path to a starting role. They are willing to pay what it takes to retain their players and also save money by picking up players that were flying under the radar like Malik Benson and Jadon Canady.

I wouldn’t expect to see any surprising names hit the portal before the playoff ends, but it would not be surprising at all to see Oregon pursue some top names when January 2^nd hits.