Dante Moore & Co.: When Loyalty Still Rhymes With College Football in 2026
Updated: Oct 31
We spend every offseason talking about the players who leave. But across college football, some of the sport's biggest stars have chosen another path, staying, finishing what they started and trying to build a legacy at the schools that gave them their opportunity.
Loyalty in college football used to be easy to define. A player signed with a school, developed there, played three or four seasons and, if everything went according to plan, left for the NFL with the same logo on his helmet that he had chosen as a teenager.
That version of the sport is largely gone. The transfer portal has made changing schools easier than ever. NIL and revenue sharing have given players financial leverage previous generations could never have imagined. Rosters can be reshaped in weeks, quarterbacks can become free-agent prizes every winter, and one breakout season can suddenly create opportunities across the country.
None of that is inherently wrong. Players finally possess some of the freedom coaches and programs have enjoyed for decades. If a coach can leave for a better opportunity, a player should have the ability to do the same. But something gets lost in the conversation. Every offseason, we track the portal almost obsessively. Who entered? Who left? Who followed his coach? Which contender lost a starter? Which school offered more money? Which roster got raided? The departures become headlines. The players who stay often become footnotes.
And yet, look around college football in 2026. There are projected NFL draft picks who decided Sundays could wait. There are established stars who could have commanded enormous attention elsewhere but never entered the portal. There are players who stayed after coaching changes, players who remained with the programs that developed them, and players who decided that another season with the same teammates meant more than immediately searching for the next opportunity.
They didn't all stay for the same reason, and they don't all fit the traditional definition of loyalty. That's exactly the point. Loyalty in 2026 is no longer about having no choice. It's about having choices — sometimes extremely lucrative ones — and deciding there is still something worth staying for. And perhaps nobody embodies that better than Dante Moore.
Dante Moore — unfinished business in Eugene
If there is one decision that defines this idea, it belongs to Dante Moore. After throwing for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns while completing 71.8 percent of his passes in 2025, Moore had little left to prove when it came to his NFL potential. He was projected near the very top of the draft and could have exchanged Eugene for the NFL — and the enormous guaranteed contract that would have come with it. Instead, he stayed.
The reason matters. Moore has spoken about wanting to improve as a quarterback and, more importantly, about wanting to bring Oregon something the program has spent decades chasing: its first national championship. That makes his return about more than another season of statistics.
Oregon went 13-2 in Moore's first year as the starter and reached the College Football Playoff, only for the season to end with a painful 56-22 defeat. For a player with NFL money waiting for him, returning means accepting another year of college practices, expectations, pressure and injury risk because the story still feels unfinished.
There is NIL money involved, of course. Pretending otherwise would be naïve. Loyalty in 2026 doesn't require ignoring economics. But Moore had access to the biggest financial step the sport can offer and chose one more season in Eugene instead. Sometimes loyalty is simply deciding that unfinished business is worth more than leaving at the first opportunity. And Moore isn't even the only example in his own locker room.
Oregon's defensive front made the same choice
Look at the other side of the ball in Eugene. A'Mauri Washington could have entered the NFL Draft after establishing himself as one of the country's most intriguing interior defensive linemen. At roughly 330 pounds with unusual athleticism for his size, he had already put enough on film to generate serious NFL interest. Yet Washington stayed, and so did Matayo Uiagalelei, Teitum Tuioti and Bear Alexander.
Four defensive linemen. Four players with legitimate NFL futures. Four players who decided there was still value in another season at Oregon. And these weren't simply fringe professional prospects looking for another year of film. Washington appeared on NFL draft boards as one of the better defensive tackles available. Uiagalelei had generated early-round consideration, while Tuioti had just led Oregon in sacks and tackles for loss. They had decisions to make. They chose Eugene.
Together, they give Oregon something that even the most aggressive portal recruiting can't always manufacture: continuity. The Ducks aren't simply bringing their quarterback back for another national-title run. They're returning an NFL-caliber core that collectively looked at the next level and decided the job in college wasn't finished.
There is something else important here, too. Bear Alexander's presence complicates the word "loyalty." His path has taken him from Georgia to USC and eventually to Oregon.
By the old definition, he would be the opposite of what this article is about. But maybe the old definition doesn't work anymore. Loyalty in modern college football doesn't necessarily mean never transferring. Sometimes it means finally finding the place where you want to stop moving.
Jeremiah Smith — loyalty when you hold all the leverage
Jeremiah Smith's situation is different. He couldn't have entered the 2026 NFL Draft. After arriving at Ohio State in 2024, the three-year rule meant the NFL wasn't yet an option. But the portal certainly was, and there might not be a non-quarterback in college football with more leverage than Smith.
He's already one of the faces of the sport, a generational receiving talent and one of the most valuable players in college football. If he had ever decided to explore what another program might offer him, virtually every contender capable of making the numbers work would have listened. Instead, he's still wearing scarlet and gray.
That matters for a different reason. Loyalty isn't only tested when the NFL calls. It's tested when you know you have alternatives. Ohio State gave Smith the platform to become a national star almost immediately. He has responded by becoming part of the identity of the program rather than treating Columbus as merely the first stop on the way to somewhere else.
And 2026 gives him the opportunity to do something that has always mattered in college football: build a legacy attached to one uniform. Twenty years from now, people won't remember the NIL valuation. They'll remember the catches, the games, the championships, the No. 4 jersey and the moments inside Ohio Stadium. That's another version of staying that deserves attention. Smith didn't turn down the NFL. He simply never needed another college.
LaNorris Sellers — choosing South Carolina again
LaNorris Sellers could have become one of the most valuable quarterbacks on the open market. Instead, he remained a Gamecock. That distinction matters because Sellers isn't merely another quarterback who happened to stay at his original school. He has become part of the identity Shane Beamer has built at South Carolina.
At 6-foot-3 and more than 230 pounds, Sellers possesses the combination every program is searching for: arm strength, mobility, physicality and enough experience to make people wonder how high his ceiling can ultimately go. In the portal era, that profile creates options, lots of them.
But there is also value in not starting over. Sellers already knows the offense. He knows the staff. He knows the expectations in Columbia. And South Carolina knows exactly who it wants leading the program. That relationship matters even more after a season that failed to meet expectations.
Staying after everything goes right is easy. Staying when there is still something to repair says more. For Sellers, 2026 isn't about discovering whether the grass might be greener somewhere else. It's about seeing how far the program he already chose can go with him at the center of it.
Noah Fifita — Continuing to Believe in Arizona
Noah Fifita may represent the most traditional version of loyalty on this list. Unlike some of the other players mentioned here, he never needed to change schools to find the right environment. Arizona gave him his opportunity, he became its starting quarterback and one of the faces of the program, and he has chosen to keep building his story in Tucson even as the transfer portal repeatedly offered an obvious way out.
His journey hasn't been perfectly linear. Fifita has experienced the highs, the expectations that come with becoming an established quarterback, but also the changes and more difficult stretches the program has gone through. In today's college football, those are precisely the moments when an experienced quarterback can start looking elsewhere. At no position are experience and proven production more valuable in the portal. Fifita could have started over with another program. Instead, he chose to continue with Arizona.
And perhaps that's what makes his decision so meaningful. Loyalty isn't only about staying when everything is going well or when a national championship appears within reach. It can also mean believing enough in a program, in your teammates and in what you've already built to want to be part of what comes next. At a time when changing schools has become almost routine for quarterbacks, continuity itself can become a statement.
For Fifita, then, 2026 represents more than another season. It's another opportunity to keep attaching his name to Arizona, rather than adding another school to his college résumé. Great college football careers aren't measured only by statistics or NFL projections. They're also built through the connection a player develops with a university, a program and its fans. Fifita has had opportunities to search for something new. He chose to keep building where his story began.
Ahmad Hardy — finding somewhere worth staying
Ahmad Hardy complicates the traditional definition of loyalty, too. He didn't begin his career at Missouri. Hardy arrived from Louisiana-Monroe, then exploded in the SEC, rushing for 1,649 yards in his first season with the Tigers and establishing himself as one of the best running backs in the country.
That success created leverage, and that's precisely the point. Hardy had already experienced the portal. He knew what changing schools could do for a career. After proving he could produce against SEC defenses, he could have looked at his options again. Instead, he stayed at Missouri.
Modern loyalty isn't necessarily about where you started. It's about recognizing when you've found somewhere worth staying. Missouri gave Hardy the platform to become a national name. Hardy gave Missouri one of the greatest rushing seasons in program history. Now both sides get another year together.
Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy — staying through change
Then there is Ole Miss. Few programs had more reason for roster instability after 2025. Lane Kiffin left for LSU, Pete Golding took control, and the Rebels entered the kind of transition that usually sends players toward the portal. Two of the most important pieces of the offense stayed.
Trinidad Chambliss had already taken one of the strangest paths imaginable to the national stage, going from Ferris State to Ole Miss and eventually leading the Rebels through a remarkable season. He could have allowed that to be the ending. Instead, he fought for the opportunity to play another year, and Kewan Lacy, one of the country's most productive running backs, will be there with him.
That's significant. When a coach leaves, we almost instinctively expect players to follow. College football's new structure makes it possible to treat every major coaching change as an opportunity to reconsider everything. Chambliss and Lacy chose continuity instead.
They aren't staying because nothing changed. They're staying despite the fact that almost everything did.
Why stars can choose to stay now
There is another reason this is happening more often, and it would be dishonest to discuss loyalty in modern college football without acknowledging it: money.
For generations, elite college players faced an obvious financial calculation. If the NFL believed you were ready, returning to school meant delaying life-changing money while continuing to expose yourself to injury. That equation isn't as simple anymore. NIL, revenue sharing and the broader economics of modern college football mean elite players can now earn significant money without leaving school.
For the very best quarterbacks — and even premium players at positions such as offensive tackle or edge rusher — collegiate compensation can reduce the financial urgency that once made declaring for the NFL almost automatic. That doesn't make these decisions less meaningful. It makes them possible.
Dante Moore doesn't have to choose between earning money and staying at Oregon. Jeremiah Smith doesn't need to transfer simply to maximize his value. Elite players can weigh development, relationships, championships and legacy alongside finances rather than automatically placing financial security on one side of the equation and college football on the other. That changes everything.
Unfinished goals
Then there is the part that can't easily be assigned a dollar value: the national championship that hasn't been won, the rivalry game that was lost, the teammate you've spent three years beside, the coach who recruited you, the position coach who developed you, the campus that became home, the season that ended one game too early.
Those things have always mattered in college football. The difference now is that players have more freedom to decide how much they matter. Moore can look at what happened in the playoff and decide he wants another chance. Oregon's defensive front can look around the locker room and realize that the players needed for a championship run are still there. Sellers can decide he'd rather try to elevate South Carolina than restart somewhere else. Chambliss and Lacy can decide that a coaching change doesn't have to end what they helped build at Ole Miss. That isn't naïveté. It's agency.
Continuity still has value
There is also a football argument for staying. Every transfer carries risk: a different offensive system, different terminology, different teammates, different expectations, a different strength staff, a different position coach, a new campus and a new locker room.
Sometimes the move transforms a career. Sometimes it doesn't.
For established players already developing in the right environment, continuity has value. Another year mastering the same offense can make a quarterback more NFL-ready. Another season under the same defensive staff can turn a second-round projection into a first-round one. Another year of physical development can matter more than chasing the newest opportunity.
The portal gives players freedom to leave. It also gives staying more meaning, because staying is no longer the only realistic option.
Loyalty didn't disappear. Its definition changed.
It would be easy to romanticize all of this, but that would miss the point. College football players aren't obligated to stay at one school. A transfer can be the right decision academically, athletically, financially or personally. Coaches leave for better jobs every offseason. Programs move on from players when they believe they can upgrade. Players deserve the same freedom.
But freedom is precisely what gives loyalty meaning. A decision isn't particularly meaningful when there is no alternative. Today, there almost always is.
That's why we should be careful when we say loyalty has disappeared from college football. Maybe we've simply spent too much time looking at the transaction wire. For every portal headline, there are players quietly deciding that what they already have is worth keeping.
Some, like Dante Moore, postpone the NFL. Some, like A'Mauri Washington, Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioti, look at legitimate professional opportunities and decide another season with their teammates is worth it. Some, like Jeremiah Smith, possess almost unimaginable leverage within the college game and still choose continuity.
Some, like Ahmad Hardy and Bear Alexander, remind us that transferring once doesn't prevent you from eventually finding a program you want to call home. And some, like Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, stay even when the program around them changes.
Their reasons are different. That's fine. Because loyalty in 2026 isn't about demanding that an 18-year-old remain forever loyal to a decision he made in high school. It's about choice.
And perhaps the most interesting consequence of the portal and NIL era is that staying is finally a genuine choice.
College football has always been built on legacy in a way professional sports aren't. The names inside stadiums. The jerseys remembered twenty years later. The quarterbacks who become synonymous with a school. The defensive linemen who could have played on Sundays but came back for one more year of Saturdays. The players who could have chased the next opportunity but decided they wanted to finish building the one already in front of them.
That's what can get lost when college football is discussed only as a marketplace. Players still care about where they play. They still care about teammates, coaches, winning championships and leaving something behind. And sometimes, they still care about the school that gave them the opportunity in the first place.
We will spend plenty of time this season talking about the players who transferred, the programs they left and the opportunities they found somewhere else. We should remember the other side of the portal era, too.
Moore. Smith. Sellers. Hardy. Washington. Uiagalelei. Tuioti. Fifita. Alexander. Chambliss. Lacy. Different stories. Different reasons. Different definitions of loyalty. But the same fundamental decision.
When almost everyone has somewhere else they could go, there is something meaningful about choosing to stay.
Sometimes the biggest decision a player makes isn't where to go next.
It's deciding that he's already where he wants to be.
