With a spot in the College Football Playoff Semifinals on the line, No. 4 Texas Tech and No. 5 Oregon will clash in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. The Ducks are seeking their first appearance in the Semifinals since they made a run to the National Championship in the inaugural CFP (2014), while Texas Tech is seeking its first ever CFP victory.

Both programs are great success stories of the Transfer Portal era, as many players that will suit up for either Texas Tech or Oregon in the matchup began their careers elsewhere.

High-level players such as Oregon quarterback Dante Moore (UCLA), Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez (Virginia), Oregon running back Noah Whittington (Western Kentucky), and Texas Tech wide receiver Caleb Douglas (Florida) have all made their way to their respective programs by way of the Transfer Portal and have been immediate impact pieces.

Dan Lanning commends Joey McGuire and Texas Tech for mastering Transfer Portal

This past offseason, Texas Tech hauled in 21 players from the Portal, earning the No. 1 spot in On3’s 2025 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. Their class boasted an estimated $7 million in adjusted NIL value, more than almost any other program in the sport.

Prior to the Ducks’ clash with Joey McGuire‘s Texas Tech program, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning commended him on building such a great roster with their strong NIL resources.

“He’s built a great roster,” Lanning said on Monday. “College football is about adapting. This is obviously a program that’s done an unbelievable job adapting and saying ‘let’s make our team the best it can possibly be’. They’ve done that this year. They deserve credit for how they’ve evaluated. There’s a lot of teams that take players out of the portal. There’s not a lot of those teams that necessarily have success evaluating that talent, getting them to play together, and creating a team that does that. This is a team that’s done that.”

As Lanning touched on, mastering the Portal is a very thin line. Five of the top-ten transfer classes this offseason helped their programs reach the College Football Playoff (No. 1 Texas Tech, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Miami, and No. 10 Ohio State), while three of the top-ten classes missed the postseason completely (No. 7 Auburn, No. 8 North Carolina, and No. 9 Rutgers).

The Orange Bowl matchup between No. 4 Texas Tech and No. 5 Oregon will surely be one of the most entertaining games in the entire College Football Playoff. Kick-off on Jan. 1 is scheduled for 12:00 PM on ESPN.

As he came up from walk-on to All-American at Texas, Michael Taaffe took a calculated approach through NIL. He build a strong following with more than 80,000 followers across Instagram and X.

But when it came to navigating the space, Taaffe had a plan. His goal was to focus on long-term success, meaning he wanted to leave an impact on the greater community.

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That approach helped Taaffe win the Wuerrfel Trophy, the premier award for community service in college football. He took on a central role with Texas Against Fentanyl and visited children in local hospitals. Along the way, he wanted his brand to be about more than just NIL deals.

“How do you want your platform to be remembered?” Taaffe told On3 via Zoom on behalf of Allstate. “I think everybody is an entrepreneur in the game of football. You all have your own business. You all have your own brand. How do you want your brand to be remembered?

“When I say this, I don’t mean to take any shots at anybody, but do you want your brand to be filled of [an] Instagram filled of the local sandwich shop or the local smoothie shop or the local clothing store? Or, do you want it filled for good and significance in your life that will be far more important than $5,000 or $10,000? That’s how I truly live it.”

Michael Taaffe: ‘My calling is to give back’

Michael Taaffe admitted his approach to NIL was “different,” and he signed multiple deals during his time at Texas. He was part of Sonic’s activation along with some Longhorns teammates and Texas A&M players, and he joined Seat Geek’s initiative ahead of last year’s College Football Playoff.

That’s why Taaffe said there are multiple ways to go through the NIL landscape. His focus, though, was on giving back.

“There’s no wrong or right way to go about NIL,” Taaffe said. “It’s just, how do you want your business to be programmed and ran?

“I’ve been chosen to be on the side of, I want my brand to mimic who I am as a person. I believe that my calling is to give back. I’ve been trying to use my brand to give back.”