The NCAA's Football Oversight Committee has recommended eliminating the 15-day spring transfer portal window, it was announced on Tuesday. The Division I Council received the proposal last week, sources told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd, and will decide whether it moves forward during its fall meetings in October.
If adopted, the measure could take effect as early as 2025, which would mean athletes looking to transfer before the 2025 season would have to do so during the winter portal window.
More than 3,800 players entered the portal following the 2023 season, which blew past the previous record of 3,502 set during the 2022-23 cycle. Of those, more than 1,200 did so during the spring window, according to 247Sports. While the spring window was popular, only 11 of the top 100 players in the 247Sports Transfer Portal Rankings entered during the spring cycle, including just three of the top 50.
Eliminating the spring window would be a blow to player freedom, but a welcome change for coaches who must operate in a position of uncertainty throughout spring practice over how many of the players on their roster may ultimately leave.
One wrinkle is concern with the forthcoming roster changes that will cap rosters at 105 players stemming from the House v. NCAA decision. The reduction in roster spots is expected to create uncertainty with transfer windows.
"I don't know which way the council will go on on this," one NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee member told Dodd; however, this is typically how legislation moves up the pipeline, and while rejections aren't unprecedented, they are uncommon.
