Link here: Examining Montana's success in the transfer portal
In 2024 the NCAA scrapped rules that limited the amounts of transfers a player can conduct. In this current NIL climate things really seemed to get wild and at this point, Montana really leaned in to the transfer portal. Almost all successful FCS teams rely on transfers annually, so this isn’t meant to be slander on the Grizzlies use of the portal, just an examination of guys that were brought in, and how it worked out.
First things though, we need to look at the 2023 team, or who left that year. The 2023 Grizzlies made it all the way to the FCS national title game on a roster that did feature quite a few “super seniors” who had been granted extra edibility from both a red shirt and a “covid shirt”. It had some prominent transfers as well. Per the GoGriz.com roster I count 18 seniors and taking a fast guess of them 12 were starters. The Grizzlies saw some off-season departures too and with the unlimited portal rule in place refilled the roster with guys they hoped could step into many of those vacated 12 roles.