College Sports has an update to the "Transfer Window"

[Muskie]

Link

There are now official transfer windows for NCAA sports. In basketball, it will be a 60-day window that begins the Monday after Selection Sunday.

[XUMIOH12]

I like having a transfer window; but for multiple reasons, I think it should be longer. Probably 90 days would be better.

[xukeith]

I like having a transfer window; but for multiple reasons, I think it should be longer. Probably 90 days would be better.

The timing of this is very odd. Selection Sunday and then March Madness should have all the attention in the world. News of transfering ideally could come at Final weekend or later. then again, maybe fans want to hear/see transfers coming and going.

[MHettel]

Is this an improvement?

If I read it correctly, it only outlines when someone can actually ENTER the portal. It doesn't provide any guidance about when a coach can reach out or how long a kid has to commit to a new school. I ASSUME that being in the portal essentially means that contact is permitted by coaches.

So imagine a scenario that your team is IN the Tournament, and there are 2 kids on the team that plan to transfer (you dont know this info). The first issue is that there will be kids entering the portal while your team is still playing and your attention will NOT be on the transfer market. Depending on how deep you go, you could miss 3 of the 8 weeks the portal is open. Further, you aren't even aware that 2 of your guys will enter the portal, so you have an actual NEED to fill but it hasnt materialized.

So, in the scenario that the 2 kids want to transfer, can they enter the portal and remain eligible to play on their current team? Would it not be in their interest to enter the portal as soon as possible to get the most consideration? But they are currently a member of THIS year's team so they should still be able to finish the season, right?

And what does this accomplish exactly? There were a couple thousand kids that entered the portal this last year. How many of them entered the portal AFTER May 15th? Thats approximately the new cutoff date, right? I dont have any data, but my guess is less than 5% of the transfers entered the portal after 60 days.

But what about entering the portal EARLY. Like a kid that quits the team in February and enters the portal then. SO WHAT! Is that something that needed to be fixed? Who cares? He cant play for anyone else this current year and coaches arent going to pay any attention to him until their seasons are done anyway. So under this new rule, the kid still quits the team in February and makes the DECISION to transfer immediately but has to wait 40 days to make it official. What is the point of that?

The remaining questions I have revolve around any WINDOW that might exist for kids to COMMIT to a new school. I would also like to understand the details about withdrawing from the portal and the timing of declaring and withdrawing from the NBA draft.

Probably my favorite part of this press release is the last paragraph which suggests that "student athletes, like regular students, transfer for a wide range of reasons....." Yeah, no. There is actually very LITTLE in common between a student athlete playing a major sport at a big time school and a "regular student." The idea that a D1 BBall player might decide to transfer to a new school because he changed his major to something not available at his current school is laughable. But thats a reason a "regular student" may transfer. What about financial hardship? A regular student tried to make it work at their dream school with loans and a part time job, but eventually had to throw in the towel and move back in state to attend State U. Not exactly a scenario faced by (major) D1 Athletes.

[sirthought]

For most student athletes the tournaments won't matter because they aren't playing in them. But for those teams who are, it seems like the stress level for both the team management and the players would be higher with the distraction that some of the players might be entering the portal while you are still trying to conclude business of the season.

How many weeks are we talking about from Selection Sunday until the final four? NIT? Seems like the window period could be adjusted until that is over.