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The advent of the NCAA Transfer Portal, coupled with student-athletes gaining rights to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) has completely transformed college athletics, for better or worse, into something completely unrecognizable from just a few years ago.
With players easily able to change teams with serious money on the line, college football especially has made it hard for coaches to project their roster out both for a season and into the future. New proposed regulations on the spring transfer portal window could help with that, but we could see more players in college football enter the portal.
Currently, there are two windows for college football players to enter the transfer portal. One window is after conference championship games end for 30 days, and another 15-day period around the time teams wrap up spring practice . But, according to Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA is moving to eliminate that spring window.
A proposal to eliminate the spring transfer portal window in football is advancing through the NCAA legislative process.
The NCAA Football Oversight Committee, a group of school administrators controlling football-related policy, recommended the proposal this week to the Division I Council, sources tell Yahoo Sports. If the council adopts the legislation, it would take effect this cycle, eliminating the 15-day portal window in April. The DI Council meets via video conference next month and in-person in October. It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for the council to reject a recommendation from the oversight committee.
This is probably a good policy. When a player leaves during the first portal window, a coach has a wider net to cast to replace him and more time to figure out a potential replacement during spring practice. If a guy leaves after spring practice and enters the transfer portal, there’s very little recourse for the affected team and coach.
But, this could cause more players to enter the portal when it’s all said and done. Right now, a coach can tell a player that is on the fence to stick it out through spring ball and then make a choice. A lot of times, those guys do end up staying.
If the rule goes through, those players might end up jumping ship, knowing they won’t have another opportunity to leave until after the next season.
One thing is definitely clear. College football used to be a lot simpler.