Transfer windows look to bring more predictability to CFB ‘free agency’

On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors voted to enact “transfer windows,” specifying narrow timeframes in which college athletes can transfer from one school to another.

College athletes in all sports will continue to be immediately eligible the first time they transfer, provided they notify their schools in writing during designated notification-of-transfer windows (as determined by their sport). The board opted not to enact a new exception to the transfer rules that would allow student-athletes to transfer multiple times and be immediately eligible if they meet progress-toward-degree requirements at their new school.

The transfer windows are as follows:

• Fall sports: A 45-day window beginning the day after championship selections are made in their sport, or May 1-15. (Reasonable accommodations will be made for participants in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision championship games)
• Winter sports: A 60-day window beginning the day after championship selections are made in their sport.
• Spring sports: Dec. 1-15, or a 45-day window beginning the day after championship selections are made in their sport.

Specifically for football, this means you won’t see transfer announcements right before the season starts (we’ve seen several across the country this week alone) or during the season. Players will have to wait until the conclusion of the season. While that post-season transfer window will be action-packed, it’s very much preferable to players potentially leaving at any given moment throughout the year. And the May 1-15 window also gives an outlet for players who decide after spring practice that they’d be best served elsewhere.

This era of the transfer portal and NIL is still evolving by the day, and we likely haven’t seen the last guardrail put in place around these relatively new processes. But a little bit less chaos when it comes to college football roster churning will likely be a positive thing for everyone involved.