The world of college football has changed drastically over the past several years. The new era of NIL and the transfer portal have completely flipped the sport on its head, and no matter how they feel about it, all coaches have had to adjust. It's undoubtedly the best era to be a player, while also being perhaps the toughest era to be a coach.
Two transfer portal windows - one in the winter and one in the spring - have made tampering a common theme in the new era of college football. Having two windows gave players all of the power while schools had their hands tied. Once a player got on campus, coaches could never really relax knowing they had to constantly be recruiting their players to stay. Players had the option to leave after the season in the winter window or after spring camp in the spring window. Additionally, schools could "poach" players in the spring window after seeing holes in their rosters during camp.
It made for a chaotic environment, and the NCAA has made changes in an effort to settle things down. On Wednesday, the NCAA Administrative Committee voted to eliminate the spring transfer portal window. With the move, college football is officially moving to a single transfer portal window, which gives some power back to coaches and the schools.
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
Some details still in the works
Specific dates for the single transfer portal window have yet to be determined. A potential window of Jan. 2-11 was proposed earlier this month, but has not been officially approved. The committee stated that they will listen to feedback from various parties before deciding on specific dates at a meeting in October. Given the deadlines for academic calendars at schools across the country, it will be interesting to see what dates are agreed upon.
The move aims to help schools and coaches finish each season with their entire team before the transfer portal opens. Thus, more roster stability can be found in an environment that has been seen as the wild wild west in recent years. LSU Football boasted the No. 1 transfer portal class this past offseason, most notably bringing in CB Mansoor Delane, S AJ Haulcy, C Braelin Moore, WR Barion Brown, EDGE Jack Pyburn, and S Tamarcus Cooley, among others.