The NCAA transfer portal has overtaken college athletics in recent years, though not without various attempts by the NCAA to limit its impact.
On Wednesday, the NCAA approved even more new rules regarding the portal, specifically regarding the transfer portal windows (the established timeframes during which players can enter their names in the portal) that were established in summer 2022.
The Division I Council approved changes to transfer windows across all sports, but most notably for football at both the FCS and FBS levels, and for men’s and women’s basketball.

The transfer portal window for both FCS and FBS football has been reduced from 60 days to 45 total days, spread out over two windows of time.
There will be a 30-day window beginning the Monday after conference championship games (at the FBS level) in early December, while athletes who play on College Football Playoff teams will be granted an extra five-day window in January.
There will also be a 15-day window for players to enter the portal during the latter half of April.
For basketball, the transfer portal window will open the Monday after Selection Sunday and stay open for 45 days.
Initially, it was the NCAA’s hope to limit the transfer portal windows to just 30 total days during a calendar year — from the originally established 60 days — but 45 days became the compromise.
“In both men’s and women’s basketball, the council determined that a 45-day window that concludes on or before May 1 best enables coaches to understand their current rosters, provides stability for student-athletes remaining at the school as they prepare for summer basketball, and encourages student-athletes who intend to transfer to do so before final exams at their current schools and summer school application deadlines at most campuses,” reads a statement by Lynda Tealer, chair of the council and deputy athletics director at Florida. “Moving forward, we will continue to evaluate the impact of transfer windows on student-athletes, coaches and athletics programs.”
Other transfer portal window changes that are of note:
- There will soon be deadlines for when graduate transfers must notify the NCAA of their intent to enter the transfer portal (previously, graduate transfers could enter the portal at any date), starting in 2024-25. Those deadlines are May 1 for fall and winter sports and July 1 for spring sports.
- The NCAA has eliminated the requirement that undergraduate transfers count against financial aid limits if those athletes voluntarily withdraw from the school for nonathletics reasons.
- The NCAA will permanently eliminate the annual limit on initial counters in both FBS and FCS programs (previously, those stood at 25 and 30 per year, respectively, per program). Meaning schools can add any number of scholarship players each year, as long as they have enough scholarships available out of the 85 afforded in total.