College Football
FBS Coaches Pushing for Reduced Transfer Portal Window

It’s safe to say FBS football coaches aren’t fans of the current transfer portal window — or rather, windows.
At the 2025 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Convention on Tuesday, FBS coaches voted unanimously in favor of a proposal that would reduce the college football transfer windows to one 10-day period in January, David Hale of ESPN reported.
The 10-day window would open on Jan. 2, starting in the 2025-26 season. The move, according to Hale, is an effort to preserve the integrity of bowl season and put guardrails on a system that many coaches believe is broken.
The potential alteration still has a way to go to approval, needing approval from both the NCAA oversight committee and the NCAA Division I council.
“These recommendations are intended to allow a student-athlete and coaches more opportunity to focus on their season while preserving the opportunities for students who choose to transfer to still be able to do so for a traditional spring semester,” AFCA president Craig Bohl told ESPN. “We looked at all kinds of information. I’m convinced our coaches care deeply about the student-athletes, so this decision was made through the filter of allowing them more stability and to be able to move forward.”
Issues arose this season due to mass opt-outs (Marshall) and backup quarterbacks entering the portal before the College Football Playoff (Penn State), but it remains to be seen whether the potential new window would actually fix those issues. And the loss of a spring window likely won’t be well-received either.
The current model includes a three-week period in December, following the conference championship games on the first weekend of the month, and another multi-week window following spring ball in April.
The transfer portal is a contentious topic for many in the college football landscape, and it doesn’t appear as though anything will be truly figured out in the weeks and months ahead. With revenue sharing starting on July 1, it will add another layer to college football.
This story initially appeared on our partner site Pittsburgh Sports Now.
For a related story, WV Sports Now has every WVU football transfer addition in one place.