Star transfer CJ Donaldson commits to Ohio State for 2025 football season

Ohio State secures a major transfer portal addition as CJ Donaldson has committed to the Buckeyes for the 2025 football season.

Star transfer CJ Donaldson is heading to Ohio State in 2025. / Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

Former West Virginia running back and star transfer player CJ Donaldson has committed to Ohio State for the 2025 football season, the player announced on X.

Donaldson rushed for 2,058 yards and scored 30 touchdowns over 31 appearances in the last three seasons with the Mountaineers.

This past season, the tailback rushed for 734 yards while receiving for 104 additional yards and scored 12 all-purpose touchdowns.

Donaldson was considered the No. 5 running back in the 2024-25 winter transfer portal, according to our player rankings in this cycle.

He was also a threat as a receiver, catching 30 passes for 179 yards and another touchdown.

Donaldson’s arrival is a welcome development for the Buckeyes, who are expected to lose both Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, the backs who together comprise one of the nation’s most productive running back tandems.

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How the college football transfer portal works

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office.

Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him.

And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

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