Changes could be coming to how the transfer portal is handled in college football.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that head coaches a part of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) proposed that instead of the transfer portal opening after the regular season and staying open for weeks, it should be switched to a shorter 10-day window that doesn't start until January after bowl season.
This change to a later 10-day window would also erase the spring portal window in April. However, even with this new rule, graduate transfers would still be able to transfer whenver.
AFCA head coaches are proposing to move the transfer portal to a 10-day window in early January after bowl games with spring window eliminated (except for graduate transfers).
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 14, 2025
During this winter cycle, the transfer portal officially opened for everyone on Monday, Dec. 9. When that window closed, though, varied. The official end date to the winter transfer cycle was Saturday, Dec. 28. However, a team's transfer window doesn't actually close until five days after a player's final game.
For programs that did not make a bowl or players who opted out of a bowl game, their transfer window closed on the official date of Dec. 28. However, any player who played in the postseason still had five days after that. That means for Ohio State and Notre Dame, their windows will not close until Jan. 25, five days after the College Football Playoff championship game on Monday.
As for Oklahoma, its portal window closed on Jan. 1, five days after its loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl. Of the Sooners' 27 entries into the transfer portal, only two made that move after the bowl game. And OU's last portal entry, Mykel Patterson-McDonald, has withdrawn his name and reportedly only entered the portal late because of a formality.
OU's numbers alone show how big of a difference a later and smaller transfer window would make across college football. That's 25 more players the Sooners would have theoretically had for their bowl game. (Although we know there will be loopholes for players to skip bowl games if this rule passes.)
That also helps alleviate the headaches for coaching staffs that are dealing with losing transfers, recruiting transfers, Early National Signing Day and staff changes all while preparing for postseason games in December.