Harvard Football Wide Receiver Cooper Barkate to Transfer to Duke

Updated December 29, 2024, at 1:35 p.m.

Harvard football’s star junior wide receiver Cooper Barkate will transfer to play for Duke University’s football team in the fall of 2025, Duke Football announced on X.

Barkate — who had the most receiving yards this season of any Football Championship Subdivision player — finished his junior season with 1,084 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns, a performance which helped lead Harvard to a share of the Ivy League Title.

He was also a 2024 Second Team All-American honoree this season, as well as an All-Ivy League First Team pick.

Barkate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barkate is a graduate transfer, meaning he will leave Harvard with a degree this spring after only three years at the school before beginning his time at Duke.

In the Ivy League, players cannot preserve eligibility by sitting out a season — called redshirting — early in their college careers, meaning that Barkate would have only had one more year of eligibility at Harvard.

At Duke, Barkate will have two years of play left since the four games Barkate played in as a freshman at Harvard were not enough to use up eligibility.

Harvard Football Head Coach Andrew Aurich congratulated Barkate in a statement to The Crimson Saturday evening.

“This past season was one of the all-time best at the WR position in Harvard Football history. We can’t wait to see him play next year as he takes the next step towards his goals of playing in the NFL,” Aurich wrote.

Aurich had previously written he hoped Barkate would return for the 2025 season.

Barkate’s decision to head to Duke leaves Harvard’s team without a key member of its offense for the 2025 season. For the past two seasons, Harvard finished with five wins and two losses against Ivy League opponents, sharing the Ivy League Title with two other teams.

In Aurich’s first season as head coach, he led the team on a seven-game win streak, ultimately falling to Yale in the last game of the season. Despite the loss, Barkate was critical in keeping Harvard’s hopes alive, scoring two receiving touchdowns with 169 yards.

Barkate will fill a gap in the wide receiving core at Duke following the loss of two veterans, Eli Pancol and Jordan Moore, who are both on their last year of eligibility.

Playing at Duke, which finished fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, will allow Barkate to prove himself in the Football Bowl Subdivision, a step above the FCS where Harvard plays.

Junior wide receiver Cooper Barkate evades a Penn defender. By Nicholas T. Jacobsson

Unlike recent Harvard transfers — including tennis player Cooper Williams, who transferred to Duke as well last year, and basketball player Malik Mack, who transferred to Georgetown — Barkate is not giving up a Harvard degree by leaving.

Barkate will also be able to partake in Name, Image, and Likeness deals at Duke and will have the opportunity to improve his prospects for the NFL draft.

His decision comes after Harvard recently faced concerns regarding player retention as other schools begin to offer better NIL deals than the College can and will provide. While other schools rely on donor NIL collectives and revenue sharing for their athletes, Harvard athletes must find deals independently.

Former Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah, who announced his transfer to Duke earlier this month, will reportedly be paid $8 million over two years — a sum that would make him the highest-paid college football player — according to CBS Sports.

Barkate announced his decision to enter the transfer portal in November, joining 16 of his senior teammates looking to pursue opportunities elsewhere in college football.

Players that entered the transfer portal from Harvard’s offense and special teams include tight end Justin Leszynski, offensive linemen Austin Gentle and Mike Entwistle, quarterback Charles DePrima, punter Sebastien Tasko, and wide receiver Kaedyn Odermann.

Defensive players in the transfer portal include 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.

Gentle and Entwistle have both also announced commitments to FBS programs — the University of Memphis for Gentle and the University of Massachusetts for Entwistle — and other players have received FBS offers. Senior wide receiver Scott Woods II committed to the University of Maine — an FCS team.

Still, Barkate is the only one who entered the portal with remaining eligibility at Harvard.

Barkate’s transfer announcement comes less than two weeks after the Ivy League announced it would allow teams to compete for a spot in the postseason next year for the first time since 1945.

With Barkate gone, the Crimson will be forced to compensate for the loss of its star wide receiver as it hopes to seize the chance at a playoff run.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.