The Ohio State Buckeyes have seen a few players opt for the NCAA Transfer Portal over the past few months.

This past December, Mookie Cooper entered the portal, eventually winding up with the Missouri Tigers. Jameson Williams and Max Wray both entered the transfer market last month, with Williams choosing Alabama and Wray heading off to Colorado.

And, most recently, former five-star defensive back Tyreke Johnson put his name into the portal, with his next destination still unclear.

With these recent losses for Ohio State, BuckeyeGrove's staff decided to share our thoughts on the portal. More specifically, in the roundtable below, we assess whether or not the portal is a net positive or a net negative for Ryan Day's program.

The transfer portal has always been there, even if it did not have a jazzy press agent to come up with a cool name like the transfer portal. Ohio State has always been one of those programs that has seen attrition for one reason or another. People are going to remember the players that leave early for NFL millions and all of the glory that comes with that.

But much more attrition comes way of players transferring out, portal or no portal, so this is not a new occurrence. People will remember the loss of Jameson Williams more than Brendon White because of Williams going to Alabama whereas White went to Rutgers. As recruits, White was the No. 91 player in the class of 2017 where Williams was the No. 87 player in his class, so we are talking about players that were equally thought of coming out of high school.

No, where the portal has been most beneficial for Ohio State is those few instances where the Buckeyes actually go to the portal to land someone. Be it Justin Fields, Trey Sermon or Jonah Jackson, those have all been huge pickups to either address an immediate depth need or to bolster a position group.

So, if Ohio State was already losing players, and probably will continue losing a handful with the natural ebb and flow of roster management, and can go out and pick up that occasional “ringer” out of the portal, I don’t think anyone can deny that the portal is a good thing for Ohio State based on all of those factors.

The pendulum swings both ways with the transfer portal, and given that no one program has the ability to halt recent efforts to increase student-athlete mobility, the Buckeyes must accept it as reality rather than lament its potential negative impact on the strength of the team.

In fact, I’d argue that in the short term, the proliferation of portal entries has actually had a net positive impact on Ohio State, even if the Scarlet and Gray have only seen one-way outbound traffic so far this offseason with the likes of Jameson Williams and Tyreke Johnson. Sure, Joe Burrow may have taken LSU to the promised land after splitting from his home state, but the Buckeyes wound up with another Heisman Trophy finalist and top-11 NFL draft pick in Justin Fields at the same position post-Dwayne Haskins due to the portal.

Not to mention the program’s all-time single-game rushing record-holder, former Oklahoma running back Trey Sermon, came out of the portal a year ago and ran Ohio State into its first national championship game appearance in six years. Alabama may have won that game, as well as a couple of battles for high-profile transfers with Williams and former Tennessee LB Henry To’o To’o in recent weeks, but don’t let that cloud your perception of Ohio State’s own drawing power.

Big names will continue to land in the lap of Ryan Day and company just as frequently as they depart the Buckeye program, just as long as Ohio State continues to put forth the attention that the modern transfer portal requires, and there’s no reason to believe that that won’t be the case moving forward.

I only see the NCAA Transfer Portal as a net positive for the Buckeyes. The main reason for this is how Mark Pantoni and the coaching staff continue to excel on the recruiting trail on a yearly basis.

Sure, Ohio State did lose a pair of former Rivals100 wideouts in Jameson Williams and Mookie Cooper, and while they are talented players, these aren’t program-changing losses for the Buckeyes. Even with Cooper and Williams gone, they have best wide receiver corps in the country, and Brian Hartline is once again killing it in the 2022 cycle.

Tyreke Johnson does sting a little more given the need for defensive back depth and the potential pundits and fans saw in him coming out of high school. But, however, the program is adding a trio of freshmen cornerbacks this year, and they’ve secured huge victories at the position in this class, so their recruiting efforts will make up for the loss of Johnson.

The point I'm trying to make here is that Ohio State is doing such a good job on the trail that they provide themselves a cushion whenever someone opts for the portal. Now, if players of the caliber of Chris Olave or Thayer Munford are transferring on a yearly basis, then there is a problem. So long as the Buckeyes aren't losing important contributors that change the course of the season, however, they will be in good shape.

I'll also contend the portal is great for a team like Ohio State as they are in win-now mode. They're not building toward contending for a championship as the team was in the title game just a few months ago, and made the College Football Playoff as well the season prior.

This makes Columbus an appealing destination for players in the portal, such as Justin Fields or Trey Sermon, who only have a year or two to win big before going to the NFL. That does, however, put more pressure on them to beat Alabama for targets like To'o To'o and others.

Finally, I'll say that with Ohio State's coaching stability, the portal should not be too much of a detriment to them. They're not losing key staff members every year, so players are more inclined to stay if the coach that recruited them is still with the program.

Overall, the Buckeyes' recruiting success at the high school level, the fact that they are in the championship conversation every year, and the stability on the staff makes me believe the transfer portal will only be a plus for them for years to come.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.