Significant news surfaced on Wednesday afternoon regarding the state of the college basketball transfer portal.
The NCAA has adopted a new set of rules to shorten the transfer portal window for both men's and women's basketball to 15 days. Teams who make deep NCAA tournament runs will be glad to hear that the portal will not open for business until the day after the national title game is played.
Huge news.
— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) January 14, 2026
- Portal is now 15 days, opening day after the national title game
- Five day waiting period for portal to open after a new head coach is hired
- Mid-year transfers not eligible to play https://t.co/BVW6Sehoxo pic.twitter.com/1E5xQFf4LL
Along those same lines, a 15-day period will open five days after a new head coach is hired or publicly announced at a respective university. If a new head coach isn't announced within 30 days of the prior head coach's departure, and the 31st day after the departure falls after the conclusion of the national championship game, a 15-day window will open for the players at that school.
Additionally, mid-year transfers will not be eligible to compete at a second school if they enrolled at an NCAA school during the first academic term, regardless of whether they competed there.
For example: let's just hypothetically say that a member of the UNC basketball program elected to transfer mid-year. That student-athlete would not be allowed to suit up for his (or her) new squad until the next athletic season.
Steps in the right direction
While there are still plenty of rule issues within the NCAA, these changes are absolute game-changers moving forward. We're currently seeing how the shorter transfer portal window (limited to just one) is positively changing the college football transfer process. Even though the portal should be open following the national title game, it makes sense in football, given that students need to be registered for classes at their new institutions (as most, if not all, universities have resumed classes for the spring semester by now).
The changes make a lot of sense, given that it occurs after the current season has come to an end and provides clear insight as to how student-athletes can go about entering the portal either after the season or following the departure of their previous coach.