We've all witnessed the massive chaos of the various transfer portal windows that the college football world possessed.
Key word there: possessed.
Past tense, meaning, changes are coming!
The NCAA Administrative Committee decided today to eliminate the spring football transfer portal window but left undecided the exact length and timing of a single fall portal window, sources tell @YahooSports. A decision on details of the fall window is expected within the month.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 17, 2025
The NCAA Administrative Committee has taken drastic steps to control some of the transfer portal chaos. They have elected to eliminate the Division I football spring transfer window and fall transfer window's graduate student exception.
With the help of some student-athlete feedback, the football oversight committee will consider modifications to the proposed single January window, including the length of the window and other corresponding dates.
Here's what you need to know about this major change:
-Under this proposal, undergraduate and postgraduate FBS student-athletes could enter the Transfer Portal between January 2-11. The 10-day notification of transfer window would drastically shorten the current method (20-day period in December along with a 10-day period in April).
-For student-athletes on teams who are still actively playing in postseason action during this time period may provide written transfer notification during a consecutive-five-day period beginning the day after their team's final postseason contest.
-The month of December is recommended as a recruiting dead period, while the current recruiting period in January (from January 5-31) will remain as is.
Now, this isn't fully finalized, as it must be approved by the Division I Administrative Committee. The vote is expected to occur over the next few weeks, particularly before October 1.
The transfer portal is out of controls on many levels, but these changes seem to be an excellent step in the right direction toward controlling it a bit. We saw some crazy things happen, as the transfer portal has become the Wild Wild West.
It got to a point where you went into spring ball not even knowing what your roster would look like following it. That's not ideal by any means.
While the world of the transfer portal and NIL have brought some negative features to the equation, it's good to see that there are people out there trying to best regulate how these phases operate. Limiting the transfer portal to a set window is a fair decision for both the student-athletes and programs, especially those who make deep runs into the College Football Playoff.
There's still things to be ironed out, but this news is a major step in the right direction for Division I college football.