College football needed a change. But as with the sport’s many other alterations this decade, the decision to shrink the transfer portal window is already revealing an unintended consequence.
On Friday, the final day players could enter the portal, Duke Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah, who announced his decision to return to the university and forgo the 2026 NFL Draft in December 2025, reneged on his previous commitment. While there’s an ongoing dispute about his NIL deal, most reports have linked him to the quarterback-needy Miami Hurricanes, who are bracing for Carson Beck’s exit to the pros following Monday’s national title game against College Football Playoff No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers.
Darian Mensah decision highlights still-imperfect college system
Mensah transferred to Duke last offseason after starting for the Tulane Green Wave in 2024. This season, he led the Blue Devils to an ACC championship and was 334-of-500 (66.8 percent) for 3,973 yards, 34 touchdowns and six interceptions.
He’s one of the top returning quarterbacks for 2026 and would have given Duke a shot of repeating as ACC champs. But his last-minute transfer portal entrance could sink next season before the 2025 champion is crowned.
As The Athletic college football writers Sam Khan Jr., Stewart Mandel and Ralph D. Russo wrote, “The decision leaves the Blue Devils in a somewhat bind.”
Ari Patu, a transfer from FCS North Alabama, is the only option with experience, but even that’s minimal. In five seasons, he’s thrown 212 passes. Redshirt freshmen Dan Mahan and Lawrence Gardner and incoming 2026 freshman Terry Walker III are the other possibilities on the roster.
The previous transfer portal set-up was a mess, but Mensah’s saga shows the drawbacks of a single, two-week window. In previous years, one portal period began at the end of the regular season in early December and remained open anywhere from 20-45 days. College football also implemented a 15-day spring transfer portal in April which has since been eliminated.
That unwieldy structure needed change, but Duke serves as a cautionary tale for the current iteration. Teams that believe they’re set at a position can have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the 11th hour, leaving them to scramble at finding a replacement. It doesn’t give those programs much time to convince other players to enter the portal. Instead, they must pick from the scraps of those who are already in it but have yet to commit.
All top-tier quarterbacks have already found a home for next season, leaving the Blue Devils without a viable way to upgrade. Not that we should feel much sympathy for them or any other program that finds itself in this difficult position.
For years, universities have railed against the prospect of making athletes employees, which would grant them the ability to collectively bargain and enforce legally binding rules. That could prevent players under contract, such as Mensah, from backing out of their signed commitments as well as the incessant tampering that goes on behind the scenes.
But any future change won’t provide immediate relief for Duke. When the transfer portal window officially closed on Friday, so, too, did the Blue Devils’ chances of competing for another ACC title in 2026.
Until college leaders and student-athletes can sit at the same table and hammer out an ironclad set of rules, expect more Darian Mensahs to pop up in future seasons as teams exploit the weakness of a single 15-day transfer window. All while administrators and other high-ranking officials rue the consequences of their inaction.
