Star Wide Receiver Cooper Barkate, 16 Harvard Football Seniors Enter Transfer Portal

Updated November 27, 2024, at 5:10 p.m.

Harvard Football’s star junior wide receiver Cooper Barkate entered the transfer portal on Monday as a graduate transfer.

Barkate, who finished the season with 1,084 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns over his 63 catches, is only a junior — and his potential transfer would leave the team without a key piece of its offense one year earlier than expected.

Alongside Barkate, 16 seniors are also entering the transfer portal. On the offensive and special teams units, the list includes offensive linemen Austin Gentle and Mike Entwistle, tight end Justin Leszynski, quarterback Charles DePrima, punter Sebastien Tasko, and wide receiver Kaedyn Odermann all entered the portal this week.

On the defensive side of the ball, linemen Brandon Svets, Jacob Psyk, Nick Yagodich and Tyler Huenemann, linebackers Eric Little Jr., Marcus Alexander, and Mitchell Gonser, and defensive backs Gavin Shipman, Ameer Dudley, and Miles Wiley joined the portal as well.

If Barkate were to transfer, his status as a graduate transfer indicates that he would graduate with a Harvard degree in the spring before leaving to another program. Prior to committing to the Crimson, Barkate also drew interest from marquee programs such as Oregon, UCLA, and Notre Dame.

Barkate did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Barkate’s move comes amid concerns from some alumni that Harvard sports will struggle to remain competitive as other schools begin to offer name, image, and likeness deals that Harvard can’t compete with.

As other schools have leaned on donor-sponsored NIL collectives and — after a recent National Collegiate Athletic Association settlement — revenue sharing to recruit and keep their players, Harvard athletes must find any NIL deals on their own.

In an October interview with The Crimson, Athletic Director Erin McDermott said she hopes Harvard will continue to keep NIL deals for athletes tied to profit from their marketability instead of coming from collectives.

“What we are not OK with — and it’s not even legal, but I know the reality is it’s happening in other places — is these truly more ‘Pay for Play’ payments that are coming directly from donors that are just banding together and deciding what sums of money they might provide to athletes on a team,” McDermott said.

Barkate would almost certainly receive a sizable payout if he were to transfer.

Last semester and over the summer, three star players from Harvard all transferred from Harvard without completing all four years of college.

The transfers included freshman tennis player Cooper Williams, who went to Duke, freshman basketball player Malik Mack, who went to Georgetown, and sophomore basketball player Chisom Okara, who went to Stanford.

Unlike these transfers, Barkate would transfer after getting his degree and with two seasons of eligibility left, Barkate could have all the benefits of a Harvard degree, two years of NIL money, and a chance to improve his draft stock.

Thor Griffith and Tyler Neville, who both transferred last semester as graduate students after four years of playing Harvard football, cited improving their chances at making it to the National Football League as the main reason for their choice to transfer.

Griffith, who now plays for the University of Louisville, said that NIL money was only a “small, small part” of his decision.

Despite the announcement, entering the portal does not guarantee that Barkate will leave.

Harvard Head Coach Andrew Aurich wrote in an emailed statement that he hopes Barkate will return for next season.

“Coop has a unique opportunity because of his academic progress to explore opportunities,” Aurich wrote. “We are on the same page and I support him seeing what opportunities may be available.”

“We are hopeful that he will be back for the 2025 season and continue to add to the Harvard Football record book,” Aurich added.

In an interview earlier this month, Barkate suggested that Harvard’s game against Yale University last week would not be his last in a Crimson uniform.

“I don’t think so,” Barkate said. “I bleed Crimson.”

When asked ahead of The Game whether he was considering the possibility of entering the transfer portal, Barkate declined to answer.

“That’ll be a conversation for after the season,” he said.

—Staff writer Praveen Kumar can be reached at praveen.kumar@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.