The NCAA announced Tuesday it has ruled in favor of adopting new punishments for schools that circumvent the transfer portal window.
Effective immediately, schools that sign players outside of the transfer portal will have automatically triggered penalties, including “a suspension of the respective sport’s head coach for 50% of a season and a fine of 20% of that sport’s budget.”
There is only one transfer portal window now in college football, which was open from Jan. 2-16, 2026. The new rules in place look to patch a loophole like the one that Jake Retzlaff used to play at Tulane.
In June, Retzlaff faced a seven-game suspension for violating BYU’s honor code. Both portal windows had passed, but Retzlaff withdrew from BYU, enrolled at Tulane and walked onto the team.
Though the circumstances around Retzlaff’s departure were different than a player simply leaving for more money, with the passing of the new rules, players will not be able to withdraw from their current schools and walk on somewhere else if they do not enter their name into the transfer portal during the transfer window.
“This change addresses gaps in the transfer and tampering policies that have allowed for abuse, but we acknowledge that there is more work to do,” said Josh Whitman, chair of the Division I Cabinet and athletics director at Illinois, in a statement.
“Thanks to the new, more streamlined structure for Division I decision-making, we were able to take a good idea that originated with practitioners, vet it and approve it, all in a matter of weeks. We believe closing this loophole simplifies things for student-athletes and holds schools accountable for their actions.”