
College basketball programs around the country have formalized their official 2025-26 rosters following another offseason of upheaval. There were once again more than 2,000 Division I transfers in the men’s game, and it took months to sort out this round of free agency.
The four primary components of roster construction in this era are retention, transfers, high school recruiting and international additions. That’s also the general order of importance for most programs, though it differs widely depending on the program and circumstances. Most programs are done. For some others, all that’s left to do now is to finish the process of getting some international players to campus.
Portal season has mostly been a wrap since late May, although June and July did bring about a couple more meaningful moves. As we get further along in the player compensation era, it’s no surprise to see deep-pocketed programs with deep institutional commitments to basketball landing impressive transfer hauls. Among the big winners from this cycle were programs like Kentucky, Louisville and UConn.
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But things didn’t go perfectly for all of the blue bloods. With the dust settled and a new season approaching on the horizon, it’s time to take a final look at the winners and losers of portal season.
Here’s the full rundown.
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