The NCAA has officially eliminated the spring transfer portal.
Per the NCAA Administrative Committee, college football will move to a single fall transfer portal window, but the details of the length or starting dates of that window are still to be determined following feedback from athletes. Under the original proposal, the window to enter the transfer portal would take place from Jan. 2-11, instead of a 20-day window in December and a 10-day window in April under the current model. According to the old guidelines, if an athlete participated in a postseason contest following the expiration of the transfer portal, each player on a participating team would have a five-day window. Per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, more details on the length and timing of the new fall transfer portal window, set to start this offseason, should be announced within the month.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day is strongly against a transfer portal window in January, along with the majority of Big Ten coaches and administrators, instead favoring a single transfer portal window in the spring.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea at all,” Day said at a press conference ahead of his matchup with Ohio. “In the conversations that we had with the Big Ten coaches, I think the majority of them agree. I just don’t quite understand how teams that are playing in the playoffs are expected to make the decisions and sign their upcoming players while they’re still getting ready to play for games. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
“I know the calendar is funky, but I know that the Big Ten and [commissioner] Tony Pettiti has been working hard because he doesn’t believe it either and neither do the coaches in the Big Ten. We’ve had a lot of long discussions about that and tried to work through the different windows. But I don’t agree with it being in January.”
Ross Bjork backed up his coach in June, also strongly advocating for a spring football transfer portal window.
“If we ever say that we care about academics and we want to live by that, then I think the transfer portal window should be in the spring,” Bjork said in June. “And then now that you have a revenue sharing contract, where you will have an MOU with an athlete, from a fiscal management standpoint, it’s better to put it in the spring.”
Despite Day and Bjork’s reservations, it’s probably unlikely a portal window starts in the spring because of hesitations from administrators in other leagues about the academic calendar.
The NCAA Administrative Committee also made December a dead period, meaning college coaches can text, email and call an upperclassman, but cannot meet with them in person, and made Jan. 5-31 a contact period. Also, the official date a senior prospect can also officially receive an offer letter from a school has been moved from Aug. 1 to Nov. 15 and the committee also eliminated exceptions for graduate transfer students who previously could have entered the transfer portal at any time, even outside of the approved window.