CFB News: NCAA eliminates college football's spring transfer portal window

The spring transfer portal has officially been eliminated in college football.

The NCAA’s Administrative Committee decided Wednesday to move to a single transfer portal window. The dates of that window are still to be announced in the near future.

The FBS and FCS oversight committees will consider modifications to the proposed January window,which would run from Jan. 2-11. Discussions will include the length of the window and exact dates, with a final decision expected in October.

For student-athletes on teams who are still actively playing in postseason action during this time period may provide written transfer notification during a consecutive-five-day period beginning the day after their team's final postseason contest.

The month of December is recommended as a recruiting dead period, while the current recruiting period in January (from January 5-31) will remain as is.

The dead recruiting period would begin after the early signing window closes. High school players have the chance to sign with their school of choice for three days starting Dec. 3. If they do not sign during that window, the earliest they can sign with a school is Feb. 4.

The spring window has become a controversial topic over the recent years due to unexpected post-spring transfers and the elimination of the one-time transfer rule which has given players and agents the leverage to demand more money or playing-time by threatening to transfer.

This year, more than 1,100 FBS scholarship players entered the transfer portal during the Spring window.

Here are some coaches around college football's take on the new updated transfer portal rule:

"I desperately think one window is better," Nebraska coach Matt Rhule told CBS Sports. "Basketball has one window. So it's not like we're the first sport to do it. We're just making ourselves whole like the other sports."  

“I just don’t quite understand how teams that are playing in the playoffs are expected to make the decisions and sign their upcoming players while they’re still getting ready to play for games,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“I'm in favor of the calendar change,” Louisville head coach Brian Brohm said Tuesday. “I think it would be good for football to have one portal window instead of two. Because you want to give players an opportunity to make decisions and do what's best for them when the season is over, and we're all for it. Whether that's here, whether that's somewhere else, we're all for it. Then you want to try to get your roster set, so that you don't have to do it again in May, when people haven't even played a game yet. So I think it's beneficial for the game of football, and I think it will be better than what we've had here the last couple of years.”

Indiana was one of the more transfer heavy schools the past two years under second year head coach Curt Cignetti.

The Hoosiers are led by transfers Fernando Mendoza (Cal), Elijah Saratt, Mikial Kamara, D'Angelo Ponds, Aiden Fishers (James Madison), Roman Hemby (Maryland), Pat Coogan (Notre Dame), Riley Nowakowski (Wisconsin) and Zen Michalski (Ohio State).

Indiana brought in 18 transfers and 14 freshmen to start the spring semester for the 2025 season.

The rules are changing and they are changing for the better, the NCAA has opened up the wild wild west with the portal and NIL rules or lack thereof, a change is needed and this is the perfect time for it.