Greg Sankey shares thoughts on possible changes to transfer portal window

There have been plenty of interesting topics discussed at this week’s SEC spring meetings, ranging from the league’s new schedule to NIL reforms. But the transfer portal windows have also been discussed quite a bit.

In the first year after the NCAA instituted designated windows for players to enter the transfer portal and switch schools without losing a year of eligibility, coaches have had a chance to see how things play out in practice. And they’re already ready for some adjustments.

“Student-athletes at the national level really didn’t want transfer portal windows,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “Participating with the transformation committee, one of my observations is we’re going to have to do things and adapt.”

There are multiple reasons that some coaches would like to see the transfer portal windows shrink, but the common denominator seems to be that it runs afoul with other parts of their traditional schedules, notably recruiting.

In the 45-day window that begins in the winter on the day after conference championship games, coaches are asked to coach their teams in a bowl, host key recruiting visits ahead of the Early Signing Period, continue recruiting transfer portal players and make staff hirings as coach take jobs elsewhere.

Then, come the 15-day transfer portal window in the spring, coaches are having to double up being on the road recruiting high school prospects and monitoring and recruiting the portal.

Most coaches seem to think things could just be tightened up a little.

“We’ve gone through a year where you can generally see the data when the portal opens in that first week, a lot of activity,” Sankey said. “Then it tails off substantially.”

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman is one of the coaches in favor of a shorter transfer portal window.

“I think the portal’s open too often and too long,” Pittman said. “I think a kid knows whether he’s going to transfer or not. I don’t think he needs 45 days to figure it out. So I think I would go for a two-week window and you either get in or you stay with your program. I think that’s fair to the kids. I’m not looking for fairness to the coaches, I’m looking to fairness for both.”

Another possible negative of the current transfer portal window setup? Longer windows allow more time for nefarious behavior, particularly as coaches realize they may have missed out on prospects available.

“And then some of the behaviors that really raise questions about tampering, the use of NIL, those seem to happen, not exclusively, but later as that portal drags on,” Sankey said. “And the observation from our coaches is, ‘Can we reduce those windows?’ I think there’s a need to engage.”