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The Transfer Portal Is Testing HBCU Football’s Ability to Build, Not Just Launch
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Mark Gray and Luke Williams see HBCU football becoming both a destination and a launching pad. The MEAC’s unprecedented quarterback uncertainty shows the cost—and the opportunity—of that changing talent economy.
HBCU football enters the new season with its familiar promises intact: packed tailgates, proud bands, regional rivalries and a growing spotlight on gifted players and coaches. Yet the biggest question hanging over the sport may be less about who wins a conference title than how programs sustain success when their best talent can move so quickly.
On OG Sports Rap, Mark Gray and Black College Sports Page editor Luke Williams framed the issue clearly. Black college programs are now serving as destinations for players who did not find their path at the FBS level, while also functioning as launching pads for accomplished HBCU players seeking bigger opportunities. That two-way traffic can improve talent across the landscape, but it can also make continuity difficult to protect.
A two-way talent market changes the conversation
Williams noted that dozens of players left the FCS level for FBS programs, including many prominent passers, receivers and rushers. In the HBCU space, that loss is especially significant because a proven all-conference performer is not easily replaced. A program can spend years identifying, recruiting and developing a player only to confront another roster search after a breakthrough season.
Still, the movement is not one-directional. Williams also pointed to more than 100 players moving from FBS programs to the FCS. Some arrive after sitting deep on a depth chart at major schools and looking for a legitimate chance to play. For HBCU coaches, that creates access to experienced, motivated talent. It also creates a new responsibility: bringing transfers into a culture and turning individual opportunity into team progress.
The MEAC quarterback reset is the clearest warning sign
The MEAC offers a vivid early-season example of how quickly the landscape can change. Williams said the league’s top 10 passers from the previous season are gone. Its preseason first-team quarterback, North Carolina Central junior Josh Jones, had thrown only a limited number of passes in his college career, while Howard’s Ja'Shaun Scroggins also entered the discussion without a long record of recent production.
That does not mean either player lacks ability. It means the traditional signals of stability are missing. Williams emphasized that neither preseason selection was necessarily guaranteed a starting job. Gray rightly identified the larger concern: when winning-now pressure pushes schools toward finding ready-made answers, programs can lose the time and patience required to develop quarterbacks from within.
Opportunity must not become a revolving door
There is real value in an HBCU program being known as a place where players can revive a career, get coached hard and earn another look. Williams said the FCS-to-FBS movement has also made Black college football a potential path to the NFL. That is an important part of the sport’s mission, offering athletes a platform to prove their ability when earlier opportunities did not materialize.
But Gray’s concern reaches beyond individual advancement. If teams consistently lose their top playmakers just as they become championship-level contributors, the ceiling for collective success becomes harder to reach. He connected that tension to the desire to see programs make deeper postseason runs, particularly at the Division II level. A league can be richer in opportunity while still struggling to maintain the veteran continuity needed for a long season.
The race remains open because the coaching matters
The uncertainty also creates room for strong leadership to matter more. Gray views Howard as a potential dark horse in part because of new coach Ted White’s reputation as a quarterback developer and the presence of running back Eden James. Williams similarly identified South Carolina State and North Carolina Central as major MEAC forces, while refusing to dismiss the momentum around DeSean Jackson’s Delaware State program.
Across Black college football, the hosts see competitive races rather than simple coronations. They highlighted Alabama State quarterback Andrew Body as a central SWAC storyline, but Williams cautioned that Grambling, Jackson State and other programs make that league far from automatic. The point is bigger than a preseason pick: in an era of rapid roster change, staff organization, player development and discipline may decide who turns promise into wins.
What It Means
The portal is not going away, and neither is the desire of ambitious players to test themselves at the highest available level. HBCU programs cannot be faulted for being places where players grow enough to earn broader opportunities. That is evidence of coaching, development and belief in the athlete.
But the next level of Black college football success will require more than supplying the pipeline. It will require retaining enough core contributors, developing quarterbacks with patience and building rosters that can absorb change. As Gray and Williams see it, this season’s most meaningful results may reveal which programs can turn movement into momentum rather than allowing it to become a yearly reset.
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