The biggest takeaway from these latest NCAA transfer rules (which now have been adopted and are now effective immediately) is that the transfer portal window (which was previously open 24/7 throughout the year) is now limited to approximately just 60 days within a recruiting cycle (45 days from early-December through mid-January plus 15 more days from May 1st through May 15th). Also, the one-time transfer rule for immediate eligibility was retained....instead of adopting the proposal to allow players to transfer every season and be immediately eligible to play (as long as they were academically eligible).
NCAA rules now will require any school that considers athletics when awarding scholarships to transfer student-athletes to provide that scholarship for the rest of a student's five-year eligibility or until they complete the requirements for their bachelor's degree, unless the student transfers again or engages in professional athletics opportunities.
College athletes in all sports will continue to be immediately eligible the first time they transfer, provided they notify their schools in writing during designated notification-of-transfer windows (as determined by their sport.)
The board adopted the following notification-of-transfer windows:
Fall sports: a 45-day window beginning the day after championships selections are made in their sport, or May 1-15.
Reasonable accommodations will be made for participants in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision championship games.
The legislation also establishes exceptions to the new windows for student-athletes who experience head coach changes or have athletics aid reduced, canceled or not renewed.
The board also adopted new, more specific standards for immediate eligibility waivers for student-athletes who do not otherwise meet the one-time transfer exception, focusing on student-athlete well-being or circumstances outside the student-athlete's control.
The board opted not to enact a new exception to the transfer rules that would allow student-athletes to transfer multiple times and be immediately eligible if they meet progress-toward-degree requirements at their new school. However, the board remains committed to continuing to study the impact of the new transfer rules in both the short and long term.
Student-athletes who will enroll at another school after graduating are now allowed to enter the Transfer Portal at any time, the Division I Council decided during its virtual meeting Wednesday.
On Aug. 31, the Division I Board of Directors adopted new transfer rules — effective immediately — that required student-athletes to enter the Transfer Portal during sport-specific transfer windows.
After today's Council action, student-athletes who plan to compete the following year as postgraduate students are exempt from those windows. Today's action does not exempt the students from implications associated with the decision to enter the Transfer Portal, including the reduction or cancellation of athletics financial aid for their next academic term.
The Council voted to move the spring notification-of-transfer windows in both Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision football to April 15-30, rather than May 1-15.
The Football Oversight Committee proposed the change to allow participation discussions to occur at the conclusion of spring football, while also providing football student-athletes with more time to go through the transfer process and arrive at a new school before the start of summer activities.
The council adopted new recruiting rules for official and unofficial visits. Moving forward, prospects will no longer have a limit to the number of official visits they can make to NCAA member schools. Prospects will be limited to one official visit per school, unless there is a head coaching change after an official visit, in which case prospects would be able to complete a second official visit to the same school. In men's basketball, prospects still will be able to complete a second official visit to the same school provided the visits do not occur in the same academic year.
"For young people considering where to go to college, visits to campus — both official and unofficial — are an integral part of the decision-making process," Tealer said. "This was an opportunity to modernize NCAA rules in a way that provides greater and more meaningful opportunities for prospects going through the recruitment process."
Official visits may last no longer than a two-night stay, during which schools will be permitted to cover travel costs, transportation, meals and reasonable entertainment for up to two family members accompanying a prospect on that visit.
The rules will take effect July 1.
Other Actions:
The council approved a package of recruiting reforms proposed by the Football Oversight Committee. The new recruiting rules take effect Aug. 1.
The football comprehensive recruiting model would modify the FBS and FCS recruiting calendars; adjust the first date to send recruiting materials, electronic correspondence and telephone calls; permit in-person off-campus contacts with high school juniors; reduce off-campus recruiting activities; and, in the Football Championship Subdivision, modify on-campus evaluations.
Modifications to the recruiting calendar in both the Football Bowl Subdivision and FCS include:
- Schools would have 33 evaluation days (42 for U.S. service academies) during the months of September, October and November, selected at the discretion of the school. Only authorized off-campus recruiters could visit a prospective student-athlete's educational institution and on only one calendar day during this period.
- The Monday of the week that includes the initial date for the regular signing period of the National Letter of Intent through the first Sunday in March would be a dead period.
- For U.S. service academies, the Friday immediately after the initial date for the regular signing period of the National Letter of Intent through the first Sunday in March would be a quiet period.
- At the discretion of the membership school, coaches would have 140 recruiting person days (180 for U.S. service academies) from April 15 through the Saturday preceding Memorial Day for a contact period.
- The Sunday before Memorial Day and the next three calendar days would be a dead period.
The recruiting package also would standardize the date of the first opportunity for schools to initiate a telephone call to an individual (or their family members) or to send recruiting materials and electronic correspondence. June 15 at the conclusion of a prospect's sophomore year of high school would be the first date any of those activities could occur. The recommendation also eliminates the restrictions on the number of telephone calls an institution may initiate. Once a school is permitted to initiate a telephone call to an individual, there would not be a limit on the number of calls the school may initiate to that individual.
In addition to the recruiting calendar and the first date for calling or sending recruiting materials or electronic correspondence, the model also changes the first opportunity for off-campus contact with prospects:
- Off-campus recruiting contacts could not be made with an individual (or the individual's family members) before Jan. 1 of the individual's junior year in high school.
- A school would be limited to eight off-campus, in-person contacts with a prospective student-athlete and the prospect's family members for the prospect's junior and senior years combined.
- Contact could occur only one time per week.
- Contacts that occur during the prospective student-athlete's junior year in high school could occur only at the prospective student-athlete's educational institution.
- Schools would be allowed up to two off-campus contacts during the January contact period of a prospective student-athlete's junior year of high school. A school would also be allowed one off-campus contact during the spring contact period of a prospective student-athlete's junior year of high school.
- The head football coach could make only one off-campus contact during the prospective student-athlete's junior year and one off-campus contact during the prospective student-athlete's senior year in high school with a prospect or their family members. The model would not change the off-campus recruiting prohibition of FBS head coaches during the spring contact period.
1. outside of the last 2 minutes of each half, the clock will not stop for 1st downs in d1 and d2 football.
2. teams will not be allowed to call consecutive timeouts
3. penalties at the end of the first and third quarters will be applied on the first play of the following quarter. sounds like no more untimed plays at the end of the 1st and 3rd quarters. all plays will be timed plays.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Friday approved a rule change for 2023 that will allow the clock to run after first downs in all divisions except Division III, the NCAA announced on Friday.
The clock will continue to stop during the final two minutes of each half, maintaining at least part of a rule that long helped differentiate college football from the NFL.
"That's important," said Steve Shaw, NCAA secretary rules-editor and officials coordinator, "because the beauty of the difference in our game, and it allows a team late in the game, even without timeouts, to have a chance to advance the ball and come back and that sort of thing. So we're still going to stop it in the last two minutes."
The NCAA also approved two other rules proposed in February that will modestly impact the time of the game. Teams will now be prohibited from calling consecutive team timeouts, and penalties at the end of the first and third quarter will carry over and be enforced on the first play of the next quarter.
Currently, if there is an accepted penalty for a foul on the last timed down of any quarter -- by either team -- the officials extend it.
Shaw told ESPN on Friday the combined changes are estimated to shorten the game by seven to eight minutes and eight plays, but the changes weren't directed at just shortening the game time. He said it was more about keeping the game moving while reducing the number of plays.