Brad Brownell: 'I don't think the portal needs to be as long as it is'

The expansion of the NCAA transfer portal has impacted college sports as we know it. The transfer portal window has undergone several changes over the past few years. However, Clemson Tigers head basketball coach Brad Brownell believes another adjustment is needed to the overall length of time the portal is open.

During a recent press conference, the Tigers head coach revealed that he believes the transfer portal window is still too long and needs to be shortened.

“I mean the length of it, by going all the way to May; it’s to shorten it. I don’t think the portal (window) needs to be as long as it is; I think kids know. And so now you’re just dragging it all out. It lasts longer. You’re waiting, you’re waiting, (and) then more coaches get surprised. Knock on wood, we didn’t have any surprises at the last 2-3 days of the portal. That’s happened to a lot of people,” said Brownell.

“The portal just doesn’t need to be this open that long. That would shorten some of this. It’s crazy because we made the decision to move the high school recruiting out of April and into May… there are very few coaches right now thinking about high school recruits,” Brownell continued.

This year, the college basketball transfer window was shortened from 60 days to 45. As Brownell mentioned, it was done so to help college coaches who had to do high school recruiting in the spring. Originally, both windows overlapped enough to cause a multitude of issues for coaches and their recruiting staff.

“That would have all been going on while we’re all dealing with the portal; that was a mess for a couple of years, and we finally got that move back, which will be better for everybody’s focus on high school kids. But it’s still too long, and it doesn’t need to be 45 days. 30 days would be more than enough,” finished Brownell.

As Brownell sees it, the window should be even shorter. Doing so would give programs a little more certainty when addressing the needs of their program heading into the spring high school recruiting season.