INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA’s Division I Council has approved changes that will shorten the transfer portal windows for football and basketball from 45 to 30 days while keeping an additional 30-day window in all sports after the departure of a head coach.
Tuesday’s decisions, first reported by On3, will not become final until meetings end on Wednesday but will take effect immediately.
Football’s current fall portal window runs Dec. 9 to Jan. 7, 2025 and April 16-30 in the spring. The new fall window will be 20 days after Bowl Subdivision conference championships from Dec. 9-28, with the remaining 10 days occurring from April 16-25 next spring.
Basketball’s current window of March 17-April 30, 2025, will shorten to 30 days after the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Also, the D-I men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees have changed first-contest regular season dates to the Monday 22 weeks before championship finals, starting with the 2025-26 season. The season has run for 22 weeks for three consecutive years but the next four had been scheduled for 21 weeks.
According to ESPN and On3, the Division I Council also approved eliminating the national letter of intent program, the formal process of athletes committing to schools that has been in place since 1964.
In a major shift for recruiting, the NLI program will be replaced by a new financial aid agreement that takes into account an impending settlement that will introduce a revenue-sharing model that will pave the way for schools to pay their athletes.