The transfer portal officially opened up on Wednesday, and there were around 30 West Virginia players hopping in.

This created confusion because, usually, when there’s a mass exodus of players leaving a program, it means there’s something wrong internally. It’s not a good look from outsiders, especially since only 29 departed when there was a coaching change.

But this was expected all spring from what Rich Rodriguez talked about at nauseam all spring.

“The reality is we have to have some roster movement,” Rodriguez said at the start of April. “We’re not the only ones in the country that have to do that.”

Most of the transfers were caused by an earlier spring game. The spring game marks the final spring practice, and when Rodriguez and his staff start to evaluate and shape the roster for the 2025 season. Some schools have later spring games, after the portal period of April 16-25, which puts players in a predicament. They can either stay and play it out or jump into the portal in the middle of the spring practice. The earlier spring practice benefited West Virginia in that aspect.

There were over 120 players on West Virginia’s spring roster, and 31 of them were transfers from the winter period, which was the most for the period. Rodriguez has to get down to 105 a week before the first game in the fall. There’ll also be transfer additions in the spring portal period, along with the class of 2025 enrollees who haven’t even stepped on campus yet.

Rodriguez needed to make room, forcing him to make player cuts.

“It’s not going to be fun to have to reduce the roster down because of the squad size,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez doesn’t want to reduce the roster size, but it’s the reality of college football with the ever-shrinking roster size. Previously, the rosters could exceed 120 players, but now, the roster can be a maximum of 105 players.

Most of the players Rodriguez will cut are walk-ons or from the previous Neal Brown recruiting classes. Rodriguez cutting walk-ons hits a soft spot for him because he started his career as a walk-on at West Virginia in 1981.

“You’re basically cutting 20 walk-ons,” Rodriguez said. “I was a former walk-on. I might’ve got cut… It’s hard. A lot of those guys are good players, productive and are going to be able to help.”

Rodriguez talked about his frustrations with the NCAA and that he wants a bigger roster size. There aren’t free agents you can sign during the season, so once you have your 105, that’s what you have to work with for the whole season.

“I know there’s probably a financial piece to it,” Rodriguez said. “Some guys in suits are sitting around and saying, ‘It needs to be cut to 105. Why do you need, the NFL only has 53 players?'”

Although there are some issues with the portal, it does give a lot of athletes a second chance. There’s the money aspect, but it provides another shot to get some playing time. The cut players, instead of not playing football for a year, get to find a new home where they can continue their careers. That wasn’t the case before the portal.

West Virginia’s 30-plus transfer additions might sound the alarm. Some players weren’t cut and just wanted a new situation, but most were because of roster cuts, and are players looking to continue their football careers.

“I’ve told them, this kind of sucks that we have to do so much roster movement, management, whatever you want to call it in April,” Rodriguez said. “I am complaining. It’s the new thing in college football. It’s not smart.”