Story bycollege footballKeegan PopeMon, February 9, 2026 at 8:54 PM UTC·6 min readEarly in the NIL and transfer portal era of college football, most teams appeared to take one of two tacts in roster-building: focus solely on high school recruiting and eschew free agency, or go all-in on the portal and place multi-year player development on the bottom shelf. The last handful of years have bared out that neither of those strategies will be successful long-term, with coaches now opting to balance their incoming high school classes with precise additions at key spots of need (see: Ohio State in 2024-25). AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementYes, the two-deep needs rebuilt to be competitive immediately, but having success with signing and developing high school recruits over the course of a few years can’t be understated. Translation: not everyone is Curt Cignetti and Indiana. Even the Hoosiers have turned up the intensity of their recruiting efforts.
