The NCAA is reducing the window to enter the transfer portal by 15 days.
After giving athletes a 60-day window to enter the portal last year, the NCAA Division I Council voted on Wednesday to shorten the transfer window to 45 days for all sports.
Football players, which had a 45-day window to enter the portal after the regular season and a 15-day window to enter the portal in the second half of April last year, will now have only 30 days to enter the portal after the conclusion of the regular season but will still have a 15-day window to enter the portal in the spring. Players on teams that make the College Football Playoff will have an additional five-day transfer window in January after the conclusion of the CFP.
Basketball players, which had a consecutive 60-day window to enter the portal after Selection Sunday, will now have a 45-day window at that time.
The DI Council approved changes to transfer windows in all sports to 45 days, including:
— NCAA PR (@NCAA_PR) October 4, 2023
Mens & womens basketball: 45 days
Football: 45 days (30 days after season, 15 days in spring)
Council actions are not final until meeting concludes today.
All fall sports will have a 30-day window in the fall and a 15-day window in the spring, while all spring sports will have a 30-day window in the spring and a 15-day window in the fall. All winter sports will have a 45-day window after the season.
Many leaders in college athletics felt that the 60-day window was too long. According to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, NCAA data shows that 70-80% of athletes who enter the portal within a given window do so within the first five days. The shorter windows will allow coaches to have clarity sooner on what their roster for the next season will look like, while college athletics leaders also hope the shorter windows will reduce tampering.
“Some of the behaviors that really raise questions about tampering, the use of NIL, those seem to happen, not exclusively, but later as that portal drags on,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said this summer, per On3. “And the observation from our coaches is, ‘Can we reduce those windows?’ I think there’s a need to engage.”
The transfer portal windows only govern when athletes can enter the portal, so athletes can still decide where they will transfer outside of the designated windows.
The reduction of the transfer portal windows was one of several rule changes made by the NCAA‘s Division I Council on Wednesday. The council also voted to eliminate the 25-player per year initial counter limit for football scholarships, though the 85-player overall scholarship limit remains in place. Additionally, legislation was introduced to limit photoshoots for recruits to official visits only.
The NCAA is also tackling the important stuff: Getting rid of photoshoots for recruits!! pic.twitter.com/AxFyR2aOxn
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) October 4, 2023
