SEC considering restoration of transfer portal policy

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The SEC is considering restoring a transfer policy that would require intraconference athletes to sit out a year before playing for another conference school, sources tell On3. The SEC voted in 2021 to allow players who transfer within the conference to have immediate eligibility.

The 2021 transfer policy change followed the NCAA allowing athletes to transfer once in their careers without sitting out a year. The NCAA changed that policy again in spring 2024, when the NCAA Division I Board approved legislation allowing instant eligibility for all multi-time transfers after a federal injunction against the governing body in West Virginia. 

In recent months, the SEC has explored self-governance possibilities. The Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate last month and is now awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives. The legislation would allow a one-time transfer rule but require multi-time transfers to sit out a year before playing.  

It’s unclear whether the bill will pass the House and, if it does, whether it will be enacted before the college football transfer policy begins in January. The NCAA announced on Wednesday that the FBS transfer portal will open on Jan. 4 for a 10-day period. 

One SEC school source raised the concern to On3 that restoring the transfer policy would put SEC schools at a competitive disadvantage by not being able to add talent from the conference in the portal. Another SEC school source told On3 that multiple transfer portal policy options are being discussed ahead of January’s 10-day window.

“Everyone’s throwing noodles at the wall now,” they said. “We’ll see what sticks.”

By midday on the first day of last year’s NCAA transfer portal, more than 4,500 Division I college football players entered the transfer portal. The ability for transfers to play immediately has become paramount for coaches being able to flip rosters quickly.

The college football transfer portal does not officially open until January, but general managers and agents told On3 they expect retention talks to begin in earnest in the next two to four weeks. When the regular season wraps up at the end of November, programs will know the status of nearly everyone on their roster and which players are expected to enter the portal.

“We’re running into this crazy world where if I don’t talk to a guy’s agent on the bye week, they’re saying, ‘You didn’t want to get him back,’” an SEC front-office staffer recently told On3. “And I’m like, ‘How is that possible? No, I just didn’t want to distract him in the middle of the season.’ It’s coming, it’s coming soon.”

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