Jedd Fisch pushes back on having single transfer portal window in January

Earlier this month, the NCAA Football Oversight Committee voted for there to be one transfer portal window, which would start on Jan. 2. On Monday, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch weighed in on the proposed change.

“I was disappointed in that,” Fisch said. “Really, almost every one of the Big Ten head coaches all felt that January was not the right time. I still believe that. We’ll do whatever we need to do. But the idea of having a January 2 portal when last year our football season ended December 31st. We were not a playoff team, but our season still ended December 31.

“You have to start deciding whether you’re going to negotiate with players the whole month of December when you’re trying to prepare your team. You have to decide at what point in your season are you going to talk about contracts. You’re going to have to decide about how much real NIL are players getting, versus revenue share. Now, you’ve had to speed up the timeline there.”

Last season, there were two transfer portal windows. One in December (20 days) and another in April (10 days). One window in January would prevent players from entering the transfer portal between the regular season and bowl games.

As for the spring window, coaches have claimed its timing allows players to learn about their team’s schemes, only to take them to an opposing program. Moreover, it gives other programs a larger timeline to poach players. Several teams, including Nebraska, eliminated their traditional spring game this year due to this concern.

While the single January window would prevent most teams from having to deal with the transfer portal during their respective seasons, the timeline would still overlap with College Football Playoff teams. Jedd Fisch also believes a single January window would cause issues for players attempting to academically enroll at their new school.

“As a school like us, who starts classes January 5, I think it’s a monster disadvantage,” Fisch said. “There’s no thought process of quarter schools when that decision was made. To get guys into school is going to be extremely challenging. So, we’re going to have to figure out how that’s going to work.

“Are guys going to just spend a few months here in Seattle without being in school? There’s a lot of things that went into these decisions that, for me, I just don’t see it. I don’t see the argument that you have to know who your team is on January 10… But we didn’t win that one. So we’ll adjust.”

The change isn’t a done deal yet. The NCAA Football Oversight Committee’s vote requires approval from the Administrative Committee by Oct. 1 to take effect this year.