We noticed one of many first large dominoes within the 2026 switch portal fall on Saturday afternoon when former North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker committed to Oklahoma State, following head coach Eric Morris who additionally left North Texas for OSU. It’s a large win for Oklahoma State, and an enormous loss for North Texas.
Additionally it is one other signal as to how a lot the hole is widening between school soccer’s haves and have-nots thanks to NIL and the transfer portal.
Drew Mestemaker transfer exhibits how switch portal makes and breaks packages
From a sensible standpoint, North Texas did all the things proper.
It’s a small FCS program that took a literal zero-star recruit in Mestemaker, a quarterback who didn’t even begin in highschool, and watched him develop from a fifth-string walk-on to a beginning quarterback in a single yr. He not solely labored his approach as much as the beginning job in that one yr, however he ended up main the NCAA in passing yards in his first full yr as a starter, helped take North Texas to the American Convention Championship Sport and had it one win away from being a possible Faculty Soccer Playoff group.
Although North Texas misplaced that convention championship recreation, it nonetheless gained the New Mexico Bowl to finish a 12-win season that’s the greatest in program historical past. North Texas had by no means gained greater than 9 video games in a season earlier than.
Within the years previous to the switch portal, his presence at North Texas would have made it a significant favourite within the AAC going into 2026 and once more on the radar for the playoffs as a Group of 5 contender. Nice quarterbacks are the last word X-factor in soccer (in each school and the NFL), and North Texas had the kind of quarterback who may have made it an element.
Now it’s again to the drafting board and ranging from scratch. Not solely on the head-coaching place, but in addition at an important place on the soccer area.
In the meantime, Oklahoma State will get a right away increase to a program that desperately wants it.
Oklahoma State is coming off a brutal two-year run that noticed it turn into one of many worst Energy 4 groups within the nation. However regardless of that lack of success, it’s nonetheless a significant program in a significant convention that — in principle — has deep pockets and a head coach who’s now keen to embrace the fashionable school soccer panorama. Getting a prime quarterback in Mestemaker instantly modifications the outlook and upside for what Oklahoma State will be this season. Additionally it is going to present Mestemaker a chance to play in a prime convention, at an enormous program and probably place himself to be a possible choose (and maybe a particularly excessive choose) within the 2027 NFL Draft.
It’s a large win for him, each financially and by way of his long-term outlook.
It’s a large win for Oklahoma State, its first-year head coach and its followers who noticed simply 4 wins over the earlier two seasons mixed. With Morris and Mestemaker within the combine, there must be an expectation to double that whole this season. At a minimal.
The one group of individuals it’s not an enormous win for is North Texas and its followers. However that’s the approach of the world in school soccer now within the switch portal and NIL period. Huge cash and large colleges are what win. Even when and when the small colleges do all the things proper.
