The NCAA on Friday rescinded a ruling issued earlier this week that appeared to shut down the transfer portal at the conclusion of the fall semester, confounding college football coaches and compliance personnel across the country. In walking back their guidance, players will be able to transfer between semesters, enrolling in new schools and playing for those programs in the spring despite confusion otherwise.
"What that means is they're effectively shutting down the portal," a distressed Power Five head coach told CBS Sports. "It's a cluster."
Under NCAA rules, a football team that has reached its annual limit of 85 scholarships can replace some of those players between semesters under an assortment of circumstances: transfers, ineligibility, graduation, quitting the team. What the distributed documents stated was that no four-year transfer could come in as a replacement and count against that sport's annual scholarship maximum.
The only students who could have replaced those lost scholarships, then, would have been incoming high school athletes and graduate transfers. Such a circumstance would have been counter to the current movement toward NCAA deregulation and a more athlete-friendly environment; it could have also potentially triggered legal challenges.
"What that means is they're effectively shutting down the portal," a distressed Power Five head coach told CBS Sports. "It's a cluster."
Under NCAA rules, a football team that has reached its annual limit of 85 scholarships can replace some of those players between semesters under an assortment of circumstances: transfers, ineligibility, graduation, quitting the team. What the distributed documents stated was that no four-year transfer could come in as a replacement and count against that sport's annual scholarship maximum.
The only students who could have replaced those lost scholarships, then, would have been incoming high school athletes and graduate transfers. Such a circumstance would have been counter to the current movement toward NCAA deregulation and a more athlete-friendly environment; it could have also potentially triggered legal challenges.
