There are changes coming to the transfer portal when it comes to college football.
The database, which was established in 2018, allows college football players to enter their names into it and then have other college programs then contact them. Under the previous rules, players would have the ability to enter their name into the transfer portal at any point throughout the year.
The process goes as follows, players alert their compliance offices that they intend to enter the transfer portal and in turn the school has 48-hours to enter a player’s name into the database. After that, any school is permitted to contact the player to begin the recruiting process.
But as you can see, the old format leads to issues. At West Virginia alone this past year over 20 players entered their name into the transfer portal some without any warning to the coaches.
That essentially created a year-round free agency that forced college programs to spend almost as much time fighting to keep their own players on their rosters instead of adding to them through recruiting.
That obviously created an issue for college programs.
“First of all, let’s call it what it is, it’s free agency. In what other sport do you have free agency year around? We got to get it into windows, and it has to be feasible for the student-athlete and for the school,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown previously said.
Well, now those windows are coming this winter.
The Division I Council has approved two separate transfer windows for college football limiting the time that players can enter their name into the portal to only those two periods of time. The first will occur from a 45-day window the day after the championship selections are made in the sport. That would range from Dec. 5 to Jan. 18 this season.
The second has already seen movement with it originally being set from May 1-15, but being altered to April 15-30 in the spring semester. Those two windows will provide an opportunity for the coaching staffs to meet with their team to determine how they best fit into the long term plans.
It also will allow coaches to better prepare for any potential exits, instead of being blindsided at different points throughout the year depending on the reason for a departure.
The goal would be to battle some of the tampering and other things ongoing with college sports that has made roster management a difficult task for all parties involved.
This isn’t going to stop that from occurring but it would at least give coaching staffs an idea of when to be on high alert to try to combat the issue.
The transfer portal has been one of the key talking points in college football, but this is one way to help to try to limit some of the craziness that has come with the process.
BY KEENAN CUMMINGS
