The route for HBCU and other non-Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football players seeking to achieve their NFL dreams could become even harder in the future due to the impact of the transfer portal and lack of access to the annual NFL combine, according to a recent ESPN report.
Some of the greatest NFL players like Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Aeneas Williams, Shannon Sharpe and Michael Strahan played at HBCUs – today’s Football Championship Subdivision level programs – before dominating at the NFL level. However, when the Pro Football Hall of Famers played in college, they didn’t have access to name, image and likeness nor were they forced to deal with the impact of the transfer portal.
Only seven (FCS) players were invited to the 2025 NFL Combine nearly a week ago in Indianapolis. With the seismic changes to the transfer portal that took place ahead of the 2021 college football season, along with last year’s amendment to the transfer rule of allowing programs unlimited players to transfer without penalties (barring they met academic obligations), it has resulted in fewer FCS players receiving an invite to the NFL’s weeklong showcase at Lucas Oil Stadium due to the perception of more NFL-ready talent at the FBS ranks.
NFL red flags for non-transfers?
Zach McKinnell, editor and owner of FCS Football Central, reported Tuesday on X (formerly known as Twitter) that multiple scouts from professional football teams who attended the Senior Bowl and HBCU Legacy Bowl revealed that FCS prospects who choose to remain at the FCS level instead of darting for FBS programs are labeled as “potential red flags” at the next level.
“Were they scared of better competition, are they not good enough to play at that level?” McKinnell tweeted.
ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler reported that an average of 20.5 players from smaller non-FBS programs received invites to the combine between 2016 to 2021, prior to changes to the transfer portal. However, the mean number of players has dropped to 14.5 since 2022, the lowest mark in the last decade.
Even more, no players from the Division II or the Division III ranks earned invites to the last two combines. But prior to changes to the transfer rule, an average of 3.5 sub-FCS players earned combine invites from 2015 to 2021, per the report.
The report also indicated that 126 of the 330 players who received invites to the combine transferred at some level of college football at least once, with many of the players taking their talents to programs on the same level. Additionally, 28 of those 330 have transferred no less than once from a non-FBS program. Compare that to the 2018 combine, an event where only two players among 336 invited players transferred to a higher-level college football program – meaning NAIA to D-II or FCS to FBS – after playing at a non-FBS program.
Some of the higher-profile HBCU prospects hoping to hear their names called in this year’s NFL draft include Alabama A&M’s Carson Vinson and Donovan Eaglin, Jackson State’s Irv Mulligan and Robert McDaniel, Florida A&M’s Kendall Bohler, Howard’s Jarrett Hunter, Virginia Union’s Jada Byers, Hampton’s Elijah Burris, South Carolina State’s Aaron Smith and Alabama State’s James Burgess, to name a few.
The 2025 NFL draft will take place April 24-26 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.