Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz isn’t waiting for the offseason chaos to start - he already sees where it’s headed.
Speaking Wednesday during the SEC teleconference, Drinkwitz said he expects the upcoming transfer portal window to be unlike anything college football has seen so far. According to 247Sports insider Brett Greenberg, the Missouri head coach predicted it will be the “most volatile” portal to date.
“Just a prediction, I think this will be the most volatile transfer portal,” Drinkwitz said Wednesday during the SEC teleconference. “I think we’ll have more people in the portal than we’ve had previously because that’s just the nature of what it is. More agents involved with players than there’s ever been.”
Drinkwitz has been one of the loudest voices in college football when it comes to the transfer portal, and this was another blunt warning from him about where the sport is headed.
The backdrop for that prediction is a 2026 season that has already been marked by unusual parity. The gap between college football’s traditional heavyweights and everyone else appears to be shrinking, and the rise of NIL and the transfer portal has played a major role in that shift.
There’s also the reality of what’s been happening around the sport this year: more transfer portal entries, and a steady flow of court rulings and lawsuits that have allowed players to return to college football. Against that backdrop, Drinkwitz’s take doesn’t sound especially far-fetched.
If this season is any clue, another wild portal window may be on deck - and the sport’s already shifting competitive balance could keep moving in that direction.
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Eli Drinkwitz Has Extra Juice For Mizzou's Arkansas Trip
Eli Drinkwitz has never hidden that games against Arkansas carry a little extra edge for him, and Missouris players know it. With roots in the state and coaching stops there before arriving in Columbia, Drinkwitz has a built-in connection to the upcoming trip that goes beyond the usual SEC West crossover, and it has become part of the message he brings to the locker room.
Missouri players say Drinkwitz leans into that history, using personal stories and a noticeably higher level of energy when Arkansas comes up on the schedule. It gives the Tigers a more vivid sense of why this one matters to their coach, and with the rivalry backdrop in place, that enthusiasm has become one more detail shaping how Missouri approaches the week. [Read more 🡒]