As Last Word reported via Twitter/X early Tuesday afternoon, FBS coaches voted unanimously to dramatically overhaul the transfer portal windows for all of college football. The vote happened at the close of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) annual meeting in Charlotte, NC. The CFB coaches’ vote is non-binding and moves on to the next steps later in the Spring.
CFB Coaches Vote to Overhaul the Transfer Portal
The plan adopted as a recommendation by the coaches would eliminate the December and Spring transfer portal windows. The entirety of the transfer portal window would be a 10-day term, going from approximately January 2nd through January 12th. The change is intended to take place starting with the 2025-26 academic year.
After the vote, AFCA Executive Director Craig Bohl spent a couple of minutes with the media. “When we rolled out the windows, there was good intentions, but there was some unintended consequences that I think have been noted.” The recently retired Wyoming football coach said there was a voice vote and an electronic vote of the hundred or so coaches there.
The coaches also voted to change the December “quiet period,” when contact with prospective student-athletes is limited to a “dead period,” when all recruiting contact is off limits.
The Rationale
The remarks by Bohl focus on the impact the current system has on student-athletes. But coaches across the country have been vocal about the December portion of the calendar for well over a year now.
Early December has the conference championship games, followed by the playoff selection announcement. It also, in recent years, has had the opening of the transfer portal window. National signing day for high school athletes was moved up this year from late December to early December. And then of course there is post-season/bowl game preparation for the schools that qualified.
After his ad-lib comments, Bohl then read from a prepared statement. “These recommendations are intended to allow a student-athlete and coaches more opportunity to focus on their season while preserving the opportunities for students who choose to transfer to still be able to do so for the traditional Spring semester.”
Several coaches spoke with us off the record as they exited the four-hour-long session. One told us they wanted to see the stress taking off the players of having to decide while they were still playing. Another coach told us no one liked the current system for the players, the coaches, or the programs, of the calendar, forcing decisions while football was still being played.
The Reality
The question was asked about how to handle the handful of teams still playing well into January. The answer from one coach was that the players on those teams would be granted time/day exemptions.
Those already exist to some degree. While the portal has officially closed, players who are on teams have an extra five days beyond when their team’s season ends to enter the portal. The problem with that, and this does not solve it, is that many schools start their Spring semester before those dates. Getting admissions acceptance for some players at certain schools in order to be enrolled for Spring practice could prove to be a challenge.
There had been speculation that support for a new rule that penalized teams who had players feign injuries in order to stop play would also be discussed. We were told by every coach we spoke with that the discussion on the new rule did not take place and that the entire meeting was dominated by the portal window discussion.
One coach told us off the record that if there were a new rule proposal to address players faking injuries, the SEC schools would have killed it because conference commissioner Greg Sankey does not want it.
Another coach told us there were conversations about the new financial structure for college sports and the impact on college football. That coach said the revenue sharing balances things among schools, but only if there is a reduced reliance on money from Collectives. He said without having Collectives focus on other sports, the gaps in football finances will only continue to grow.
What’s Next?
The recommendation from the coaches association now goes to the NCAA Oversite Committee for review. If it passes that group, it would go to the D1 council for final approval. The NCAA is meeting this week in Nashville. This proposal is not expected to come to any formal consideration there as it comes too close to the start of the meetings. There is another NCAA meeting in April.
If approved, the new rule would likely face legal challenges from athletes claiming their rights to change schools are being reduced due to the reduction from 45 days to 10. The legal threats could cause the proposal to stall out at the next level.
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