According to ESPN, the American Football Coaches Association will propose set transfer windows to limit the impact of the portal on roster management. The Miami football program has added 11 transfers since the end of the 2021 season. Miami has lost 17 transfers since the beginning of the 2021 season.
The first of two portal windows per ESPN would occur between the final week of the regular season and Early Signing Day in December. That would roughly be about 18 days. College football ends the regular season on the last Saturday in November. Early National Signing Day is the third Wednesday in November.
The second transfer window would be from April 15 through May 1 after the end of spring practice. Players could only enter the transfer portal during the proposed periods. Programs could sign players at any time after they entered the transfer portal. Transfers must enter the portal by May 1 to be eligible the next academic year.
Transfers after the deadline have to petition the NCAA for eligibility. The ACFA proposed the transfer windows before the portal went into effect in October 2018, but they were not adopted. Todd Berry the executive director of the AFCA told ESPN the transfer windows would allow the athletes to make better decisions.
WF coach Dave Clawson told me he thinks the avg program is losing 12-15 players in the portal, which is why there's strong support from coaches to scrap the 25 initials and allow them to get to 85 as they can. "The numbers don't work if you're allowed to sign 25 a year," he said.
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) May 4, 2022
The proposal also includes eliminating the 25 players per class limit. Miami is currently at 25 with 14 freshmen signees and 11 transfers. College football programs can sign up to seven transfers for each player they lose above the 25 signees per class. The Miami football team would be allowed to reach 32 2022 signees.
Many programs are below the 85 scholarship limit allowed to Football Bowl Subdivision programs. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported early last week that Miami was close to 85 scholarships but did not provide a number. That was before Miami lost four transfers last week with the potential for two more.
Many of the recent transfers Miami added came prior to April 15. Multiple Hurricanes left the program during the season. Under the AFCA proposal, players would have to wait until the regular season is over and essentially the end of spring practice. Players would have to commit to their programs through the end of the regular season.
The new proposal should help teams that have injury problems. Attrition from transfers would not be an issue during the season. Restrictions are already in place for when teams can recruit and the two signing periods for National Letters of Intent in December and February. The portal will continue to evolve.