The NCAA's single transfer portal window is now well closed, and spring practices will begin next month. Rosters are set across college football, and the process of turning a collection of players into a team is well underway. And, thanks to the elimination of the spring portal window, coaches can operate comforted by the knowledge that their players are theirs until December.
The NCAA has admitted it can't stop players from unenrolling at one school and enrolling at another, but the NCAA Football Oversight Committee is looking to close that loophole.
Two days of meetings in Indianapolis have led to the Committee trial-ballooning the possibility of punishing programs and coaches who add players outside of established windows, as first reported by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo. Possible penalties include multi-million dollar fines, multi-game suspensions for head coaches, and the loss of roster spots.
-- The head coach would be prevented from all football (coaching and recruiting) and administrative duties (meetings) through the team's sixth game of the season
-- The school would be fined 20 percent of its football budget
-- The team would lose five roster spots for the following season, regardless of whether or not there was a coaching change
"We felt this was appropriate to place an emphasis on this rule with where we are in Division I football," said Buffalo AD and committee chairman Mark Alnutt. "We have a window for student-athletes to notify their school when they would like to enter the Transfer Portal. If there is movement without going through the process as it is legislated, the committee felt there needed to be significant penalties."
Of course, the passage of any rule in today's NCAA boils down to "you and what army?" Lawyers will inevitably argue that any restriction of a players' movement, up to an including switching teams at halftime of a game, is an unlawful restriction of trade. That's assuredly why the Oversight Committee is hoping to nip the problem in the bud by deterring programs from taking players who leave their teams outside of approved windows.
Last year, Wisconsin cornerback Xavier Lucas unenrolled from Wisconsin and enrolled at Miami without entering his name in the transfer portal. Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against Miami -- Lucas was under contract with the Badgers -- but UW nor the NCAA prevented him from playing for the Hurricanes. He started for the national runners-up.
The Oversight Committee is looking to get in front of copy-cat moves when depth charts inevitably sort themselves out during spring practices over the coming weeks. Nothing is on the books just yet, though. The plan is being "socialized" by the Oversight Committee, and ultimately would need approval from the Division I Cabinet.
Outside of affirming its approval of a single portal window, the Oversight Committee moved toward allowing coaches to shift "some" spring practices to the summer, and to open Week 0 for all teams beginning in 2027, per Yahoo. The NCAA also announced it is looking to permanently eliminate the annual limit on official visits; previously, the limit was lifted on a two-year waiver.
As above, those changes would first need to be socialized, approved, and then voted upon by the Division I Cabinet, which votes April 14.