This week, the Division II Executive Board adopted emergency legislation to establish a transfer window in football, the NCAA announced today.
Players had previously been able to enter the portal at any time.
The new window for D-II football programs will take effect June 1, and is modeled after the Division I transfer window. It will require Division II student-athletes to initiate the notification of transfer process during a window spanning from January 2nd - January 16th, unless they're using an applicable Division I exception.
The new emergency legislation will also now require Division II football players to be entered in the NCAA Transfer Portal by their respective school within two business days of the receipt of a written notification of transfer from the specific student-athlete or receipt of confirmation of the student-athlete's completion of a transfer education module (whichever occurs later). The current benchmark had allowed schools seven consecutive calendar days to do that.
Based on current June 1 effective date, Division II football players will have an opportunity to initiate the notification-of-transfer process this spring, allowing them to begin the process at any time. After the June 1 date, football athletes will have to wait until the Division I football transfer window to initiate their transfer process.
"By approving a legislated transfer window in Division II football, the Executive Board is providing greater clarity, consistency and structure to the transfer process while aligning more closely with Division I timelines," Sandra Woodley, Division II Executive Board chair and president of The University of Texas Permian Basin, shared in the NCAA release.
How the rest of Division II sports will follow suit will be determined after the Division II Legislative Committee reviews Transfer Portal data for all other sports during their scheduled June 16-17 videoconference call. There, they will determine whether legislated transfer windows in other sports are necessary.
The Board has also approved an amendment to the long-range budget for championships, reducing the annual increase for championship travel funding from 5% to 2% based on historical average travel costs and Division II budgeting more than what is needed for championship travel.
More than a few coaches, most recently Paul Simmons at Harding back in December 2024 in this article we shared, have publicly complained about rising travel costs during their playoff runs, so cutting back on funding for travel for championships likely won't sit well with coaches. Though, the NCAA release shares that the amendment to the funding will not impact things like bracket or field sizes and travel party numbers.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.