College Football Transfer Portal: Dates for winter, spring entry windows

The college football transfer portal has turned into the sport’s version of free agency, critical to turning around rosters and adding game-changing talent.

Here’s everything you need to know for the 2024 college football transfer portal:

When is transfer portal open?

The college football transfer portal is scheduled for 30 days during the 2024-25 academic year. The NCAA Division I Council voted to move from 45 to 30 days in early October.

The portal will open at the end of the regular season, the day after the College Football Playoff field and bowl games are announced. According to the NCAA, the portal will open for business Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, and close on Dec. 28.

The spring window in April remains. The portal will only be 10 days, lasting from April 16, 2025, and shutting down on April 25, 2025. The transfer portal will open for 30 days whenever a head coach leaves their program, allowing athletes to leave and decide on their future, according to NCAA guidelines.

With the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, the postseason will be longer. Athletes on teams that compete in the College Football Playoff and later bowl game will be allowed to enter an additional five-day transfer portal window in January after the portal closes.

More than 2,800 FBS scholarship players entered their names into the NCAA’s transfer database during the 2023-24 school year. Removing those who withdrew or went pro, the final total sat at 2,707 transfers. That means roughly 25% of all FBS scholarship players hit free agency in one year.

In data gathered over the first two years with transfer windows, the NCAA found most athletes enter the portal within the first four weeks of the portal opening. The study showed that 73% of men’s and women’s basketball undergraduate athletes entered during the first four weeks. That increased to 82% for men and 86% for women in 2024.

What players can enter transfer portal?

The NCAA pivoted on its transfer portal policy in December when it agreed to terms on a preliminary injunction in the Northern District of West Virginia District Court.

The D-I Council adopted emergency legislation for a new transfer rule this spring. All undergraduate athletes can now transfer and play immediately as long as they meet specific academic requirements. Previously, if an underclassman wished to transfer a second time, the athlete needed the NCAA to grant a waiver to compete immediately. Absent an approved waiver, the athlete had to sit out a year. 

There is no limit on the number of times an athlete can enter the transfer portal. The NCAA sent out memos to institutions twice during 2023-24 stating that multi-time transfers could play immediately in 2024-25 without securing a waiver. Athletes cannot transfer mid-year and play for a new school in the same athletic season.

Changes have been made to grad transfer requirements, too. Athletes can enter the portal at any time during the academic year but must enter before the close of their respective sports’ final transfer windows.

What is transfer portal’s impact?

The 2023-24 cycle was the sixth year of the transfer portal era. This year’s transfer portal could look significantly different with the 12-team College Football Playoff.

The FBS saw 72 teams lose 20 or more scholarship transfers this offseason. Only two years ago, just 25 teams were at that mark. In the 2023-24 portal cycle, 883 FBS scholarship transfers landed on Power 4 rosters. That almost doubles last year’s number (454). There could be more than 60 FBS teams that roll with transfers as QB1 in 2024.

Across the college football landscape, conferences saw their top players make the jump into the transfer portal. Toledo quarterback Dequan Finn, the MAC Player of the Year, is now at Baylor. The American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year, UTSA linebacker Trey Moore, is expected to be a key piece of the Texas defense in 2024.

Sixty-three all-conference selections from the Group of 5 in 2023 will be playing in the Power 4 this season. There was an uptick in the number of Group of 5 scholarship players entering during the 2023-24 window, too.

The Group of 5 to Power 4 pipeline has continued to pick up momentum. In 2021-22, 123 Group of 5 scholarship athletes transferred up. That number nearly doubled to 239 in 2022-23.