On Tuesday, the NCAA took a massive step forward to creating a single, 30-day window for the Transfer Portal at both the Football Bowls Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), the sport's two-highest classifications.
The Division I Football Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision Oversight Committees moved to enact a single, 30-day transfer window.
If formally adopted, the upcoming NCAA Transfer Portal window would start Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, and close on Jan. 7, 2025.
It would be the only timeframe that a student-athlete could transfer and automatically be granted immediately eligibility at a new institution; transfers outside of that window would be required to go through an appeal process.
The Division I Council meets in October and if, as expected, approves the measure, it will be enacted for this season.
It's a stark reduction from the current model, which has been a total of 45 days to transfer -- 30 at season's end, 15 in late-spring.
Per the NCAA release, college athletics' main governing body says:
"The recommended change to a 30 consecutive day window allows schools and student-athletes to engage in conversations about future academic and athletics opportunities before the start of the spring academic terms.
"Data from the 2024-25 academic year showed that many football student-athletes made the decision to transfer after the end of the fall football season."
In addition to the proposal to change the transfer window, the FBC and FCS committees approved a "blanket waiver for the upcoming season that excludes postseason participation from the limit of four contests a football student-athlete may participate in without using a season of competition (eligibility)."
In other words, players may now participate in conference championship games and/or College Football Playoffs and FCS Playoffs or bowl games in addition to being able to appear in four regular-season contests without it burning a year of elgibility.
This move is an expansion on a recent change allowing student-athletes to participate in a bowl game, a fifth contest, without exhausting a full year of eligibility.
DI football committees recommend that the notification-of-transfer window in the sport be modified to one 30-day window.
— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) August 27, 2024
Under the proposal, the window would open the Monday after FBS conference championship games and would close in early January.https://t.co/n3oN16zLWl