College football’s winter transfer portal window could be extended from 10 days to 15 days if it is approved by the NCAA’s Division I Administrative Committee in October.
Nearly two weeks after the NCAA eliminated the spring transfer portal window for football players, the Division I Oversight Committee recommended that the single winter portal window be extended beyond its original proposal, based on player feedback.
The original winter transfer portal window was proposed to begin on Jan. 2 and last through Jan. 11, but the administrative committee stopped short of ratifying it earlier this month. The oversight committee’s recommendation Monday, if approved, would extend the portal window from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16. The administrative committee meets Oct. 7-8 and must approve the change before it takes effect.
The 15-day January portal window would be inclusive of undergraduates and graduate transfers. Previously, graduate transfers had exceptions to enter the portal outside the designated windows.
The oversight committee also announced that it discussed potential changes to the head coach exception to the portal windows, though no formal recommendations have been made. Currently, players get a 30-day window to enter the transfer portal beginning the day after a head coaching change. So far this season, three Virginia Tech players have entered the portal since Brent Pry was fired on Sept. 14.
Since the introduction of transfer portal windows, the NCAA has made them shorter each year. The windows were opened for a combined 60 days in the 2022-23 offseason (45 in the winter, 15 in the spring). In the 2023-24 offseason, they moved to 45 total days (30 in the winter, 15 in the spring). The most recent offseason saw the portal window days shaved to 30 (20 in the winter window, 10 in the spring). The winter windows typically began in December.
The shift to one portal window and moving it out of December was pushed heavily by college football coaches. FBS head coaches who attended the American Football Coaches Association convention in January unanimously supported the 10-day model with the exact dates the oversight committee proposed, with goals of reducing the amount of year-round roster churn that existed with two free agency periods and getting it as far out of the season as possible.
If this change takes effect, the portal would open while College Football Playoff semifinalists are still playing and impact those four teams, and the two that move on to the national championship game. But because most schools begin the spring semester in January, starting the window on Jan. 2 is seen by some coaches as the most sensible solution. If this 15-day window passes, players on the teams that play for the national title would still have a five-day window that begins the day after their season ends.
SEC coaches largely support the move to a January window, though some Big Ten coaches, including Ohio State’s Ryan Day, took exception to the original dates, since their teams could still be playing. Georgia coach Kirby Smart said there’s no perfect solution because the football season and college academic calendars don’t align as closely as they once did.
“Until they fix that, we have a dilemma,” Smart said earlier this month. “So, the lesser of the evils is to say, ‘OK, two or four teams are gonna have to deal with this while they’re playing.’”
(Photo: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)
