Can't Wait For Saturday List of portal losers includes two Illinois opponents

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Jan. 30—***

As much as I like Top 100 lists during the college football off-season, winners/losers lists during the down time are even better.

Manny Navarro of The Athletic delivered a doozy on Thursday, picking his winners and losers of the just-completed portal season.

No surprise, national champion Indiana and coach Curt Cignetti made the good list. So did LSU (shucks), Miami, Oklahoma State and Texas.

Good for them, especially the Cowboys, who need the help.

But I'm more interested in the five teams Navarro put on the loser side. Illinois fans might want to pay attention too because two of the teams are on the 2026 schedule.

Duke, which visits Champaign the second week of the season, won't have quarterback Darian Mensah, who is going to Miami. He is being joined with the Hurricanes by former Duke teammate Cooper Barkate, who is coming off a monster season in Durham. Duke also lost its No. 2 receiver to Virginia Tech and safety Terry Moore to Ohio State.

Nobody would blame Duke coach Manny Diaz if he asked for the portal to go away.

New Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald worked wonders as the coach at Northwestern. But since taking over in East Lansing, players have been sprinting out of the place.

The biggest losses are top receiver Nick Marsh to Indiana, quarterback Aidan Chiles to Northwestern and running back Makhi Frazier to Mississippi.

Michigan State didn't add many Power Four players from the portal. Illinois will get a close look when Bret Bielema's team visits Spartan Stadium on Oct. 10.

The other three teams are on the loser list are Alabama, Iowa State and North Carolina. Most of the capable Cyclones followed Mat Campbell to Penn State.

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