Last week, we spoke to personnel directors at several schools to get their take on the spring portal window, and how it measured up to expectations as well as how it compared to December. This week, as promised, we are passing along what we got back from several agents who had players seeking transfers. Here are our takeaways.

Talent was average.

• “The spring window tends to be weaker, I’d say this one was particularly weak. (Players) are starting to understand how the portal works, and December is really the best time to go in for them.”
• “You saw most high-end teams needing 1-2 positions, whereas in December, teams were hunting for a lot of best available players at numerous positions. April was more position-specific, based on team needs.”

• “You’re not seeing a lot of tenured guys hit the portal as you did last spring or even in the December window. Teams are doing a much better job of roster management.”

The money was not nearly as plentiful.

• “I saw less of teams being desperate to sign lesser players.”
• “I felt like more Tier 2 or 3 players were getting in expecting huge paydays based off of what they heard about the December portal, but not everyone was able to get that.
• “I felt like things were slowing down a bit and teams were starting to settle on ranges for players. There appeared to be a bit more level-headedness when it came to the April portal or a better understanding of the market/what they could do specifically as a team.”
• “This spring portal window was underwhelming to say the least. You’ve got guys like Josh Pate at 247 hyping this up to be the craziest portal window ever and it absolutely wasn’t.”
• “A lot of big P4 schools are getting away from the bidding wars. (LSU head coach) Brian Kelly came out and said they aren’t going to overspend on players just because of a need.”

Schools are getting better at all aspects of the portal.

• “Teams and collectives are getting smarter with roster retention. Coaches are able to better evaluate who is a potential roster defector and collectives are putting language in their contracts that helps from players being tampered with before the portal window opens.”
• “There’s still players that will slip through the cracks, but now it’s more of your second or third guy in the rotation at a position going to a school where he will be the No. 1 guy.”

It’s not surprising that it’s becoming more of a buyer’s market as the portal era continues and the people writing the checks get smarter about how they allocate their dollars. The ball is in the court of agents who now must figure out how to leverage their players and identify the schools with the biggest budgets. We’ll continue to monitor the development of things.