College football's hopes to rein in transfers with one portal window gaining momentum

New York Times

19 hours ago

With the House v. NCAA settlement finally approved, the people in charge of college football are turning quickly to the sport's next potential rules changes. At the top of the list: moving to a single transfer portal window for football, instead of the current two in December and April.
At SEC meetings last month, Georgia coach Kirby Smart called it 'the biggest decision that has to be made in college football right now, by far, to me.'
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During a call next Monday, its first meeting since the House settlement's approval, the Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee is expected to have a deep discussion on a single portal window. The hope is to come out with a recommendation and begin a path to solidify a change before the upcoming season.
'I'm confident we'll get there,' committee chair and Buffalo athletic director Mark Alnutt told The Athletic.
But when would that single window be? And what would it mean for players and teams?
According to several people involved in the process, granted anonymity in order to describe the state of discussions before a formal decision, early January is the option with the most momentum; one person described it as an 80-20 split. At its annual convention this January in Charlotte, the American Football Coaches Association proposed the window run Jan. 2-12 beginning in 2026, following a unanimous vote of dozens of FBS head coaches in attendance.
That date would allow most schools to finish the season with their full team, a response to rising numbers of opt-outs from bowl games and even College Football Playoff teams losing players off their roster. It would also help set teams in place heading into spring practice, especially as rosters begin to shrink with the House settlement roster limits.
'I want January,' Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said. 'I want to get my team, and I want to roll and get ready for winter conditioning, spring football, and take that team into the fall.'
The institution of a transfer window only restricts when players can enter the portal. They aren't required to pick a new school in that time, though their prospective schools' academic calendars may create a deadline.
One player agent, granted anonymity to discuss his work with players, told The Athletic he prefers January and tells his clients to avoid the spring portal anyway unless they're an elite athlete. The agent was concerned that a later portal could cause kids to check out and create a limbo period, or that it would open up even more opportunities for springtime tampering.
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'Kids are going to know they're leaving before they even talk with their coaches,' the agent said. 'With January, kids are home for the holidays, talk it over with your circle, people you trust, and if you leave, you can find a school and enroll in time for class. If it's spring-only, you may have kids fall into a mental ditch.'
Not everyone is on board with a January portal window. Multiple people involved in the process said some power conference schools prefer spring, especially those whose academic calendars run on a quarter system and start class earlier in January, before the portal closes.
There's also the issue of the portal opening and closing before the College Football Playoff ends. This past season's national championship game took place on Jan. 20. Current rules give players an extra five-day portal window if their season runs long. Another player agent told The Athletic a client of his couldn't schedule a transfer visit to Columbus in January because the CFP schedule bumped events around.
'If we didn't have the second transfer portal window, it's very, very difficult,' Ohio State coach Ryan Day said in February on 'The Joel Klatt Show.' 'We're trying to make decisions about next year, yet our year isn't even done yet. So that affects your current roster, and it's just messy. I think you've gotta have two portals unless you're finishing the season sooner.'
Smart, who supports a January window, said top programs would just have to handle it for the sake of everyone.
'It's really hard to be playing in a championship setting and having to deal with that,' he said last month. 'When I brought that up as a complaint or a problem, I was told there's no crying from the yacht.'
A move to a single portal would be the latest in a long list of rule changes since 2021, when NCAA committees approved a one-time transfer with immediate eligibility in football and basketball. When players began entering the portal during the season, coaches asked for windows to restrict their movement. Fall and spring sports got two windows, while winter sports got one because they take place over two semesters. All sports' windows lasted 60 days.
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Then in late 2023, a series of lawsuits and court rulings forced the NCAA to allow players an unlimited number of transfers without sitting out, sparking a surge of player movement and leading to calls from coaches to shrink the windows they'd asked for. NCAA committees changed the windows from 60 to 45 to now 30 days over the past few years. A single 10-day portal in football would be the most dramatic change yet.
Athlete advocacy groups have pushed back on moving to a single portal window. Oversight committee members have tried to emphasize the benefits of stability. Messages left with multiple players on the Football Student-Athlete Connection Group were not returned.
'A single portal window likely reduces players' leverage by limiting transfer timing options,' said Darren Heitner, a lawyer who represents numerous players. 'Two windows allow more negotiation flexibility. One could rush decisions, especially for non-stars.'
There has also been discussion on the oversight committee about removing the automatic 30-day portal window for players who have a head coaching change, the theory being it would give a new coach an opportunity to convince players to stay before the regularly scheduled portal opens. But there is some concern that going too far in shrinking the portal could invite a legal challenge and create more problems than it solves.
Some also question whether portal windows matter. There is nothing to stop players from unenrolling at one school and enrolling at another like a normal student. In January, former Wisconsin cornerback Xavier Lucas, represented by Heitner, enrolled at Miami after Lucas said Wisconsin refused to let him in the portal. Wisconsin alleged Miami had impermissible contact with Lucas because he hadn't gone in the portal and that he'd signed a two-year name, image and likeness deal with the school based on the pending House settlement.
'Enforcement is shaky, schools can block portal entry, even if it is against NCAA rules, as seen with Lucas,' Heitner said in an email to The Athletic. 'Wisconsin appears to have escaped punishment, at least for the time being, despite the clear rules violation. He is eligible at Miami and practicing with the team.'
The oversight committee is also discussing changing spring football around that window, with a focus on an AFCA proposal of NFL-style OTA practices that would add six non-padded practices to the existing 15 practices, with the ability to spread the 21 workouts over two different flexible periods from January to June. If a single portal were instituted in the spring, this change would allow schools to hold more practice after the spring window closed. But other members of the committee told The Athletic they're concerned about the mental strain of putting players through multiple spring practice sessions.
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It's also not yet clear who the oversight committee's portal recommendation would go to. The Settlement Implementation Committee (made up of 10 athletic directors) handles post-House rules, and the NCAA is undergoing a larger governance change. One person involved in the discussions said the process is still under discussion.
Previous attempts to move to a single portal window have been stopped by athlete pushback, but the approval of the House settlement has college football's leaders trying to regain control of the sport. Uncontrolled player movement is the most visible issue with the current system in the eyes of many coaches and fans. Momentum for a single window is strong, wherever on the calendar it lands.
'Do I think it's better for a player? Not necessarily,' said the second agent. 'But it makes logical sense for the sport.'