Ryan Day made his stance clear on the proposed plan for college football to have only one transfer portal window in January: He doesn’t like it.
Asked Tuesday for his thoughts on the proposal, which was put forth by the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee last week, Day said he is opposed to the idea of having only one transfer portal window that takes place while the College Football Playoff is still ongoing. Per the recommendation made last week by the Oversight Committee, which the NCAA’s Administrative Committee will vote on by the end of the month, the transfer portal would be open to college football players for just 10 days from Jan. 2-11, while the national championship game won’t be played until Jan. 19.
“I don't think it's a good idea at all,” Day said. “In the conversations that we had with the Big Ten coaches, I think the majority of them agree. I just don't quite understand how teams that are playing in the playoffs are expected to make the decisions and sign their upcoming players while they're still getting ready to play for games. It doesn't make any sense to me.
“I know the calendar is funky, but I know that the Big Ten and (commissioner) Tony Petitti's been working hard because he doesn't believe in it either and neither do the coaches in the Big Ten. We had a lot of long discussions about that and tried to work through the different windows, but I don't agree with it being in January.”
Leaders around the Big Ten, including Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork, have advocated for there to be a single transfer portal window at the end of spring, which would line up with the end of the academic year and with athletes signing revenue-sharing agreements with their new schools for the following year.
“If we ever say that we care about academics and we want to live by that, then I think the transfer portal window should be in the spring. And then now that you have a revenue sharing contract, where you will have an MOU with an athlete, from a fiscal management standpoint, it's better to put it in the spring,” Bjork said in June.
That said, the Big Ten has reportedly been on an island with its desire for a spring transfer window, with the rest of college football’s power conferences preferring a January transfer window. Having only one transfer window in January would allow teams to set their rosters at the start of the offseason before spring practice, whereas a post-spring transfer window would mean significant roster turnover in between spring practice and the season.
The winter transfer window has been far more active than the spring transfer window over the past two years, and many college football coaches are eager for there to be only one transfer window so they don’t have to navigate two separate periods of offseason roster movement. And while starting the transfer portal window after the national championship game would be the most logical solution from a football perspective, that would make it difficult for players to enroll in new schools in time for spring semesters.
If the NCAA moves forward with only one transfer portal window in January, however, it will make navigating the portal even more challenging than it already was for teams who advance to the semifinals and final of the College Football Playoff.
“I don't think it's a good idea at all.” – Ryan Day on having only one transfer portal window in January
Those teams might not find much sympathy from the rest of college football, though.
“It’s really hard to be playing in a championship setting and having to deal with that. When I brought that up as a complaint or a problem, I was told there’s no crying from the yacht,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said in May.
