By Micheal Germanese
The lifeblood of every program is recruiting top high school talent, but is that still the case? The teams that bring in the top high school talent year after year are the programs that compete for conference and national championships. It’s been the same way for more than a hundred years, but did Oct. 15 2018 change everything? That was the day the transfer portal officially launched, letting players flow freely from one team to another. As other sports move to a roster built more from portal athletes than high school ones, is college football heading that way?
The portal has the perception of being filled with top players and difference makers for coaches to go after. The truth is, despite seeing what a player can do against college talent, there’s still the risk of getting Agiye Hall instead of Jordan Addison. Fans hear about a player entering the portal and don’t think there could be underlying conditions as to why they did. The key word around the portal these days is “tampering.” You can bet several wide receivers enter the portal because they have already agreed to an NIL deal and were never available.
NIL and the portal have turned college football into a modern-day Wild West. Every player is seemingly on a one-year deal. The term commitment no longer exists in college sports, rather it is now an agreement to play if there is a lucrative NIL salary to do so. With money and demands continuing to increase, the question becomes what’s better? To target high school level talent or target a player from the portal who has shown what he can do at the college level?
The wide receiver position has more top 100 players from high school and the portal than any other position. In 2025, 19 of the top 100 players in the portal were wide receivers. Six of those 19 players were also on the top 100 recruit list when they entered college. In 2025 recruiting class, the top 100 only had 13 wide receivers out of high school.
Rick Pitino says he would turn down a 5-star recruit: ‘I don’t think you can win big with high school kids' https://t.co/7vnepAIIJ2
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The portal has become such a major factor in building a roster in college basketball that St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino came out and said he would turn down a five-star saying, “you can’t win big with high school kids.” With more wide receivers in the top 100 of the portal than recruiting class each year, the question becomes will teams shy away from high school and focus on wide receivers in the portal instead?
Top 100 Options
According to the On3 rankings, of the top 100 recruits from 2020 to 2025, there were 103 wide receivers on the list. Of the 103, 26 were five-star recruits coming into college. The 2024 season had the most wide receivers earn the five-star ranking with seven, followed by the 2025 class with six. Over the past six years, the wide receiver position made up approximately 17 percent of the players inside the top 100.
From 2021 to 2015, the On3 transfer portal ranking had 103 wide receivers. Of the 103 wide receivers, 32 were top 100 players entering college. The position group makes up approximately 20 percent of the top 100 each year. The transfer portal holding the same number of wide receivers shows just how many receivers enter the portal each year.
https://twitter.com/PeteNakos_/status/1869223348175311093
Quality, Not Quantity
Two wide receivers who were in the top 100 players from the portal finished in the top five of total receiving yards from 2021 to 2024. In 2021, Jameson Williams finished fifth with 1,572 yards. That same year Addison finished fourth but was still playing for Pitt. The second player was Travis Hunter who finished fifth this past year with 1,258 yards.
There were three wide receivers in the top 100 list out of high school that finished top five in receiving yards since 2021. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, in 2021, finished third with 1,606 yards. Tetairoa McMillan did it in 2023 when he finished fifth with 1,402 yards and third in 2024 with 1,319 yards. Freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith finished fifth in 2024 with 1,315 yards.
Touchdown receptions from 2021 to 2024 had two transfer portal top 100 wide receivers make the top five, while the top 100 recruits had four. The two from the portal where Williams in 2021, who would finish fourth with 15 touchdown catches, and Hunter tied for second with 15 last season. Marvin Harrison Jr. finished fourth in 2022 and tied for third in 2023 with 14 touchdown catches. Troy Franklin tied Harrison in 2023 with 14, and that same year Brian Thomas Jr. finished first with 17. Smith finished tied for second in 2024 with Hunter’s 15 touchdown receptions.
Despite the portal having more wide receivers on the top 100 list, it was the one from the top 100 recruit list that took more of the top spots.
The Draft
The best barometer to judge who produces more top talent is the NFL Draft. But even more importantly it is the first four rounds that matters most. The fourth round is the line where the expectation is to be a player who’s expected to be on the team and somewhat productive.
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From the 2022 to 2025 drafts, 12 wide receivers were taken in the first four rounds that appeared in the top 100 players in the portal. There were four taken in the first and second rounds, while two were taken in the third and fourth rounds. The top 100 recruits had 20 wide receivers taken in the same drafts. Ten players were selected in the first round, three in the second, four in the third and three in the fourth.
The wide receiver position has talent in the transfer portal, but not enough that teams can avoid going after the top high school kids coming in. In the NFL you build your team in the draft and add needs in free agency. When it comes to the wide receiver room in college football, it will work the same. The top programs will build the room up from high school and use the portal only when needed.
