Tag: Division I

Jan 10, 2022; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; A sign at the entrance to the NCAA Hall of Champions and national office. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Division I Council cuts transfer portal windows to 30 total days

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The NCAA Division I Council voted Tuesday in favor of shortening the transfer portal windows for both football and basketball.

The timeframes in which athletes could enter the transfer portal had already been trimmed once from 60 to 45 days. Tuesday’s decision brought those windows down to a combined 30 days.

Eliminating the spring window for football had been under consideration, but the Division I Council opted to keep it for players eyeing a transfer after the results of spring practices.

Football players will have a 20-day window during the winter and a 10-day window in the spring. The dates for the 2024-25 offseason will be Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25. Athletes in the portal can commit to a new school at any time, not only when the portal is open for them to enter.

The men’s and women’s basketball transfer portal will open for 30 days starting the day after the end of the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Athletes will still be given the opportunity to transfer for 30 days when their original school’s head coach departs for any reason, starting the day the departure is announced.

The timeline modifications should help athletic programs better navigate the offseason after the advent of the free one-time transfer coupled with name, image and likeness rights made for unprecedented amounts of player movement.

More than 2,800 FBS scholarship players entered the transfer portal during 2023-24. The number of men’s basketball players to hit the portal in 2024 was around 2,000, some estimates found.

–Field Level Media

Jan 1, 2021; Arlington, Texas, USA; A general view of the Rose Bowl game logo at midfield during the Rose Bowl between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

NCAA D1 one-time transfer rule moves forward

Posted on | by Field Level Media

The NCAA’s Division I Council officially approved a new one-time transfer rule Thursday, with the piece of legislation still needing to cross another hurdle before it is complete.

The Division I Board of Directors now must approve the plan when it meets on April 28.

If final approval is met, the new rule would be in place for the 2021-22 academic year.

“Allowing student-athletes a one-time opportunity to transfer and compete immediately provides a uniform, equitable and understandable approach that benefits all student-athletes,” council vice chair Jon Steinbrecher said in a release. “The decision is consistent with Division I’s goal of modernizing its rules to prioritize student-athlete opportunity and choice.”

Under the new rule, approval for all first-time transfers from four-year schools would be allowed provided they receive a transfer release from their previous school, leave their previous school academically eligible, maintain their academic progress at the new school and leave under no disciplinary suspension.

Previously, a player who transferred would have to sit out a year before participating in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men’s ice hockey, unless that player received a waiver from the NCAA.

Transferring between schools among student athletes was rampant even before the rule. There are currently more than 1,400 Division I men’s basketball players in the transfer portal.

“More than a third of all college students transfer at least once, and the Division I rule prohibiting immediate competition for students who play five sports hasn’t discouraged them from transferring,” working group chair Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, said in a February. “This dynamic has strained the waiver process, which was designed to handle extenuating and extraordinary circumstances.”

Players who wish to transfer and be eligible for fall/winter sports of the following school year would have to enter the transfer portal by May 1. For spring sports athletes, there would be a July 1 deadline to enter the portal.

–Field Level Media