The rule is that much closer to being official. One transfer portal window from Jan 2. through Jan 16.
Also: DI Administrative Committee approves proposal for transfer window exception for football head coach changes. Effective immediately, in cases of a head coach change, student-athletes will have a 15-day consecutive window beginning five days after a new coach is hired or announced. Student-athletes whose coaches have already departed are grandfathered in under previous rules. Decision not final until meeting concludes Wednesday.
The transfer portal window closes before the playoffs are over? Makes sense.
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I was wondering if anyone was going to catch that!
Playoffs typically wrap up at the start of second semester, so the transfer portal needs to be set around the academic calendar. A single spring portal would probably be best, but coaches aren’t a fan because it’s less predictable for roster building.
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Yeah due to playoff timing and not dropping the entire charade of NCAA caring about the student part of student athlete, it puts things in a tough spot. You can’t ask “students” to wait until late January to transfer and get them moved into housing and into classes for semester to start at universities that start in January.
I think this timing is best they can make out of the situation. Outside of the very top playoff teams, everyone will be wrapped and those players get extra time once eliminated. I don’t think this will fix the trend of players skipping bowl games. Players who want to portal will be thinking of the future and will probably be told to avoid injury possibilities that could affect their portal prospects.
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Graduate transfers are also included in the new schedule — they, too, cannot enter until Jan. 2. Coaches pushed for the condensed window during the AFCA convention last January, arguing that two separate portal periods disrupted team cohesion and gave players late leverage in NIL negotiations.
Key details
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No spring window: The April transfer period has been eliminated entirely.
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Playoff teams: Players on CFP teams have five days to enter after their season ends.
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Graduate rule: Grad transfers cannot enter the portal until Jan. 2.
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Owners screwing the players every time!
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Tangentially related I suppose, from a story by Ross Dellenger:
College Sports Commission (CSC)’s proposed penalties under the new enforcement system tied to the House settlement, and buried inside is language that jolted administrators across the country.
The CSC would have authority to impose “competition limitations,” including ineligibility for postseason play or the loss of an entire season or seasons. That last clause, the loss of an entire season, effectively reintroduces the “Death Penalty,” the punishment that wiped out SMU football in the 1980s.
The draft doesn’t stop there. Alongside the possible season-long bans, the CSC is proposing:
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Financial penalties for schools, coaches, and athletic directors, including loss of postseason or conference revenue.
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Roster and scholarship reductions, plus limits on transfer additions.
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Recruiting restrictions similar to current NCAA rules, like caps on official visits or evaluation days.
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Revenue-share limits, restricting how many athletes in a sport can receive payouts from each school’s $20.5 million pool.
One industry source told On3 it’s “the toughest enforcement language we’ve seen in decades.”
While the SEC quietly signed onto the enforcement framework over the summer, no other power conference has joined. The Big Ten is holding out, opposing postseason bans it claims unfairly punish players. Other leagues counter that strong penalties are essential to credibility.
Until that standoff ends, the sport’s most ambitious reform effort, and the harshest punishment structure since the old NCAA era, remains frozen in limbo.
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