Who's moving through the college football transfer portal

The GIST: December both college football’s bowl season and peak roster realignment time. Coaching carousels and the transfer portal-palooza are popping off this week, but the biggest shake-ups have come in anticipation of today’s National Signing Day, when most high school seniors in the 2024 recruiting class commit to their future homes. Huge.

• It’s impossible to overstate how important recruiting is to a team’s success, not just for the next season but well into the future. College football’s equivalent of the rose ceremony starts…now!

How it works: The early signing period is the first window in which prospective players can formally sign National Letters of Intent (NLI) with their future teams, and its time frame is today through Friday. Most top recruits swipe right during this narrow window instead of waiting for the spring’s regular signing period.

• Why commit early? Those who finish high school after the fall semester can enroll in their new college’s spring semester, making them eligible for spring practices — a huge leg-up for individual players and their teams.

• Prior to the early signing period, non-binding verbal commitments are made left and right…but luring a recruit away from his first commit (aka flipping) is as common as holiday family drama. Once players sign that NLI, though, they’re locked in for at least a year.

The latest: Nebraska shook the world Monday when they flipped the 2024 recruiting class’s top quarterback (QB), Dylan Raiola, from reigning national champ Georgia. It’s a massive get for the Cornhuskers, who haven’t been good since the ’90s, when Raiola’s father played there.

Raiola declared his choice via video, only an hour after current Georgia QB Carson Beck announced he’d forego the NFL Draft and remain with the Bulldogs. If Raiola’s decision entices other top recruits to join Nebraska, the ’90s could be back before you know it.