The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee has officially voted to approve a legislative change that eliminates the spring transfer portal.
However, it has not yet finalized the proposed Jan. 2–11 window as the sole transfer period for FBS and FCS players.
The decision follows feedback from student-athletes and coaches, including input from the American Football Coaches Association convention in January, where coaches advocated for a January transfer window.
Many coaches have expressed frustration with the spring portal in recent years. The window has led to unexpected post-spring departures, and the removal of the one-time transfer rule has given players leverage to demand benefits such as increased compensation. In contrast, coaches have used the spring window to offload underperforming players following spring practices.
During this past April’s transfer window, more than 1,100 FBS scholarship players entered the portal.
With support from both players and coaches, oversight committees voted to back changes to the transfer portal window. The reform would significantly alter the timing and duration of the football offseason transfer period.
Under the proposed change, players would be required to wait until Jan. 2 —the day after the College Football Playoff quarterfinals — to enter the portal. All players would have 10 days to enter, though there is currently no deadline to finalize a transfer decision.
Graduate students, who in previous years could enter the portal before the traditional window, would no longer be allowed to do so.
Players on teams still competing in the College Football Playoff in January would have five days after their final postseason game to enter the portal.
One goal of the change is to ease the overloaded December calendar. In past years, the portal opened in early December — last year, from Dec. 9–28 —overlapping with coaching changes, transfer recruiting, bowl practices, high school signing day, bowl games and the playoff.
The FBS and FCS oversight committees are scheduled to meet this month to discuss adjustments to the dates and length of the proposed January transfer window.