The NCAA has taken immediate action to address the transfer portal. Since its inception, the main concern of coaches and administrators has been the unpredictability of transfer announcements. Athletes have been able to enter the transfer portal at any time, and in some cases that has caused a mass exodus within certain programs. Therefore, each sport season will have its own 60 days available to enter the transfer portal and shop for new college destinations.
Two important exceptions to this rule include head coaching changes or scholarship adjustments. The windows will be waived for any players who experience either one of these events.
This adjustment will, ultimately, be good for college athletics. It does provide a level of predictability for programs and allows for a more equitable exchange of players across different teams during transfer windows. The major issue with this decision is that it does not hold coaches to the same standard as student-athletes. While there is a waiver included in the decision for head coaching changes, coaches should be held to the same transfer windows as their student-athletes. If we’re aiming to create predictability and equity across the NCAA, that should extend to both coaches and players, or at least head coaches.
One more additional decision made about the transfer windows is the NCAA states that “any athlete who transfers will be guaranteed financial aid through graduation at their destination school”. There is no clarifying statement to indicate what they mean by that, but unless the NCAA is planning to fund this initiative I don’t know how they can enforce it. All students are eligible for financial aid at their college, so it feels like a strange addition to the overall decision.
All in all, this was an inevitable move by the NCAA. While I do agree that creating structure around this process - similar to a trade deadline or free agent market window in professional sports - is needed, it’s unsurprising that the change was made in response to coaches complaining about how it made their jobs harder. Once we hold coaches to the same standards as student-athletes, I won’t have any more qualms about this decision.
