The complete guide from Lines.com to the 2024 college football transfer portal. Stay in the know with the full list of NCAA college football players and their next college destinations.
The transfer portal has come to a close in college football and this incredible game of musical chairs has finally wrapped up. The transfer portal has been around since 2018 but ever since 2021 when the NIL (name, image and likeness) rules were established, its importance has skyrocketed. The portal has become a staple in the ever-changing landscape of college football rankings.
We know it may be hard to keep up so here is your comprehensive guide on everything transfer portal related and the players to watch.
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Each year the transfer window opens, players in the portal gravitate towards the teams that’ll help them get to the next step: The NFL. That first step is the NFL Draft, and players in the portal are looking to cap off their college career with an eye toward pro football.
This season, it was the period from December 4th, 2023 to January 2nd, 2024, which means it started right after the conference championship games and finished after the college football playoff semi-finals. This is only the time period where student-athletes can decide if they want to transfer, they do not have to decide what school they want to transfer to or even if they want to transfer during this time. The window may have closed on the 2nd, however, players will continue to transfer up until the Spring.
*It is important to note that this period is only for college football FCS and FBS, and other sports may have different windows.
Players can enter the portal once the season has concluded. This timeframe can vary based on how long the season goes. Players can enter the portal as a graduate transfer or at any point during their college career.
The transfer portal is the period right after the college football regular season ends going right past the new year where student-athletes can change schools. The portal was started in 2018 as a way of organizing the chaos that is college players leaving their schools before graduating, or even before starting. At the beginning, the student would have to ask their coach’s permission to talk to other schools, which the coach had the option of denying. If the coach did deny the student, then they would have to go an administrator and potentially even go to a committee of their peers for acceptance.
The portal has been updated to organize but also to expedite the process as transfers can happen within minutes. It works like this: the student-athlete asks an administrator from their school to place their name in the portal and their school has two business days to submit. The portal also used to have a much longer time limit exceeding 60 days. This past season it was 30 days for the fall college football portal.
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