The college football transfer portal is moving to single window format in January

Changes are inevitable in college football. The House settlement and rev-share were supposed to bring stability to the sport but the pieces are still being put in place in this new world. Another big alteration to the transfer portal will arrive after the 2025 season.

The spring window has been eliminated and the winter window is being pushed back a month. Ross Dellenger reports that the NCAA Footbball Oversight Committee voted to support a single transfer window that runs for 10 days from Jan. 2-12.

The NCAA FB Oversight Committee voted today to support a single transfer portal in January, sources tell @YahooSports, ushering in a significant change.

The Administrative Committee still needs to formally adopt the change later. The 10-day window is expected to open Jan. 2.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 4, 2025

This policy change has some more steps to go through before it becomes official but college football coaches are getting their wish. Back in January at the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) convention in Charlotte, this single window first received its big public push. Coaches wanted to eliminate the spring transfer portal window and requested a singular 10-day window in January after bowl games. Graduate transfers will be able to leave for another school at any time.

“These recommendations are intended to allow a student-athlete and coaches more opportunity to focus on their season while preserving the opportunities for students who choose to transfer to still do so for a traditional spring semester,” AFCA executive director Craig Bohl said.

This move gets transfer portal activity officially away from the early signing period in December for high school prospects and mostly avoids bowl season and the College Football Playoff. Teams in the national semifinals and championship will still have to deal with the portal while playing the biggest games of their season but everyone else in the sport will officially be in offseason mode when the portal window arrives.

Now gone is the double-dip opportunity for players to go back to the negotiating table in the spring. This means that rosters will pretty much all be set before spring practice. That should hopefully give college football programs some more stability in the team-building process.

More change is coming to college football but now the sport’s free agency window doesn’t have to interfere with the entire postseason.