Essentially, it sounds like they're changing to one transfer portal window that will probably be in early January. This should eliminate the mad scramble that happens right after the regular season ends. On the other hand, there are still games going on in the College Football Playoffs at that point, so it'll be trickier for them to make it work. The timeframe also makes it possible for players to transfer between the fall and spring semesters, but limits transferring during the spring semester.
Personally, I'm less concerned about when the transfer window is, and more concerned about what they could do to reduce lower FBS and FCS schools from essentially being the "minor leagues" for the top FBS teams. One idea I've seen floated around is some sort of reasonable fee that the school that a player is transferring to has to pay to the school they are transferring from, maybe on some sort of scale. Just as a rough example:
- If a player transfers from FCS to FBS, the FBS school pays the FCS school $100k
- From DII to FCS, that's $10k.
- No fee for moving across or down a level, and the fee is waived if there is a HC change that offseason.
- Add in maybe 10% for each game they played in the previous season, up to an additional 100%.
If a player plays in 2 games, maybe to keep their redshirt, but decides they can go bigger with a FBS school, then that's $120k ($12k if D2->FCS). If they were injured the previous season and didn't play, just $100k ($10k if D2->FCS).
Not quite sure how to handle the difference between the P4 FBS level and the G6 FBS though.
Essentially, some sort of reasonable penalty for "poaching" good players from lower level schools. The players can still transfer, but the lower schools aren't left hanging if all their starters go to the Big 10 and Big 12 or whatever. They would then have money that they could put towards recruiting new players, keeping their remaining good players, or whatever they decide to put it towards.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin