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College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Fixing the Transfer Portal: A Plan to Save College Football

A bold plan to fix college football’s transfer portal chaos with smart rules, scholarship terms and real accountability

Avatar photoTJ Chapman
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By TJ Chapman

Up until the 2017 season, a Football Bowl Subdivision player (FBS) could transfer to another school, but that player had to sit out one year before being eligible to play. That changed in 2018 when the NCAA introduced the transfer portal.

The portal was designed to allow players to enter their name into a portal without getting permission from their current school with the desire to transfer elsewhere. Prior to the portal being available, all of the power of players being able to transfer was with the schools and coaches. The portal swung the pendulum of power significantly in the players’ direction.

In 2018 the rules of the portal required a waiver from the NCAA allowing the player to play immediately. That process typically was long and inconsistent. The NCAA altered the rule in 2021 to allow a one-time transfer without the penalty of sitting out one year. After a lawsuit filed in 2023 ruled against the NCAA in 2024, unlimited transfers are now allowed.

What that means is a player can now play four years of college football at four different universities. What started out as a way to put more power into the hands of the players has turned into the players wielding all of the power. Part of that power is knowing that even if they enter their name into the portal they are not required to leave their current school. They are free to sign with the school they just attempted to leave just as they are free to sign with another school.

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The portal has now become even more of a Wild West than in its earlier years. College football has become something similar to the NFL’s free agency. But in the NFL when a player signs a two-year contract, for the most part, that player stays with that team for those two years. That isn’t the case in college football as scholarships are given on a year-to-year basis.

Tampering Run Amok

The rumors of tampering from opposing coaches to get players to enter the portal are many. Recently Illinois head coach Bret Bielema implied that Georgia tampered with one of his players who transferred to Georgia. There are so many rumors that it seems if a coach isn’t tampering, he’s not trying. Thankfully, some coaches still have a code amongst themselves and will not do it. Though, how many, or few, that number is will never be known.

There are currently two transfer portal windows in college football, one in the winter and one in the spring. The window in the winter opens the Monday after the first Saturday in December and is 20 days long. The spring window opens April 16 and closes April 25. While there are windows for when a player can enter the portal, there is no deadline for when a player signs with a new team.

Another window opens for a player to enter the transfer portal if the head coach of the team he currently is playing for leaves. That window opens for 30 days for players of that team to enter the portal. Those players are free to sign with whatever team they choose at any time, as is the case for all players in the portal.

With the tampering and multiple transfers there is little consistency with a college football roster from year to year. When you mix in NIL deals and now the revenue sharing that begins with the 2025 season, the transfer portal will be used in the negotiations of those deals.

The Guidelines

The portal is just too loose, with little oversight from an incredibly weak NCAA governing body. While I’m on board with players being eligible to play after transferring, I feel that this has gotten way out of hand and needs to be regulated. Here are my suggestions.

First and foremost, whether it’s the NCAA or another governing body, somebody needs to be in charge of the oversight and enforce the rules. Players, coaches, schools and donors need to be held accountable for their actions. Violations need to be punished, no matter who they are.

For that to happen, a United States judge is needed to step up and tell the players no, you can’t do this. Because as we know with a lot of athletes today, they don’t like to hear the word “no.” And the NCAA is so weak as soon as they say no, the player runs into court with a lawsuit to file whining because they didn’t get their way. Someone needs to put a stop to it.

Then there needs to be guidelines for the portal. As part of those guidelines there needs to be more weight held in the scholarship a player signs. If you sign with a school to play football for their program you’re required to play the entire season, including bowl games. No more opt outs.

With the added weight of the scholarship will come the ability to have terms, meaning a player can sign a two-year, three-year or four-year scholarship. However, be careful what you wish for, if a player signs a scholarship for that term he is not permitted to enter the transfer portal during that time. If the player and the school both agree to it, he can enter the portal prior to the scholarship expiring. However, he must sit out one year before being eligible to play, no matter if he has used his one-time free transfer or not.

The term scholarship will also slow down the coaches who are urging players to enter the portal to free up a scholarship for another player. Those coaches need to manage their rosters better and use the players they have.

With that in mind, there will be only one transfer portal window and that window will come after spring football. The reason for the timing is it does not overlap with either bowl season or the start of the spring semester. By the time spring practices are over the spring semester will be over and teams will know, for the most part, what their rosters will look like. At that time the players who desire a change can then enter the portal and figure out where they will go.

The unlimited transfer rule is gone, there will only be one free transfer, meaning only once can you transfer without sitting out one year. The lone exception to that rule is if the head coach, offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator leaves. Then the 30-day window currently in place applies. The addition to the coordinator leaving is because a number of players sign to play for the coordinator, not necessarily the head coach.

The exception to the coordinator leaving is if a player signs a multi-year contract. If the player decides to leave in the middle of the contract he must sit out one year before playing, no matter if he has used his one-time free transfer or not. In layman’s terms, the only way a player can leave if the coordinator leaves is if the player’s scholarship has expired.

Something needs done to help regulate the constant turnover in college football. However, most if not all of these suggestions will never be used as people who own a business do not like being told how to run that business. And make no mistake, college football is a very lucrative business.

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