Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is batting like a .123 or something in the spring portal window. He's mostly missed on the players in that window, and other times has largely ignored it. This year, the spring portal added a little extra nonsense with two players who came in the winter portal, WR Mark Hamper and TE Tanner Koziol, leaving in the spring portal. However, that led to easily the biggest homerun for Fickell in the spring portal, TE Lance Mason.
Now, if you didn't know, the spring portal is dead. The NCAA Administrative Committee has eliminated the spring portal and decided to only have one window a year for transfers. The dates for this are not yet determined, but it will likely take place in the winter.
This means that coaches will only have one time a year when they really have to stress out about swooping in and getting transfers while also working to retain their own players from jumping into the portal.
Lance Mason was the only real addition Wisconsin has found in the spring portal
Related: PFF grades against Alabama highlight the biggest issue still facing Wisconsin
It won't be a big loss for Wisconsin to drop the spring portal. Mason has been the only breakthrough. The other players are either depth pieces or have been swings and misses. In the 2025 spring portal, Wisconsin added TE Lance Mason, QB Hunter Simmons, LS Nick Levy, OL Davis Heizen, and WR Dekel Crowdus.
In 2024, the additions were OL Leyton Nelson and OL Joey Okla. This goes to show that in the last two spring portal windows, Fickell has essentially found only one starter.
So, goodbye spring portal, you didn't really help Wisconsin, but we will thank you for the gift of Lance Mason. However, that may have been Tanner Koziol's fault more than the spring portal's gift. Regardless, it doesn't hurt to see the thing go away.