CLEMSON — As long as the Big Ten does not mess things up, college football might have a solution to control the craziness of the transfer portal.

Since its inception in 2018, the transfer portal has been a headache for head coaches and college administrators in terms of roster management. It got even worse when the NCAA got rid of the one-year transfer rule in 2021, which allows a student-athlete the ability to transfer whenever they want.

Last month, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported the transfer portal is one of the things members of a new committee of power conference administrators are looking into, as they explore ways to overhaul a 365-day college football calendar. The goal is to marry the new calendar with the House settlement-related athlete-revenue sharing model which started on July 1.

On Wednesday, Dellenger reported some new information on the subject from Big 12 Media Days. According to Dellenger, the newly created committee continues work on overhauling the football calendar, including reducing the portal windows from two to one.

He says the debate continues and the issue is with the Big 10. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 all want a singular January portal window, while the Big Ten wants two, including one in April.

“The committee is hoping to make final calendar recommendations to commissioners by the end of August and to implement some of the changes in this coming academic year. That includes the changes to the portal,” Dellenger reports.

The current transfer portal windows open in the second week of December and mid-April.

Last month, Dellenger reported the majority of coaches want a 10-day portal period in early January, many administrators, as well as coaches in the Big Ten, are supporting an April portal date—as a way to align the portal with the academic calendar, which ends in May—and a school’s new revenue share cap year, which will end in June.

This not only impacts decisions on spring practice, but it may determine if a second portal window will continue to exist. For instance, SEC coaches want a January portal date, but they would be okay to keep the April window if it came down to it.

If given the choice between a January or April window, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is in line with SEC and prefers a single January window.

Ross Bjork said coaches, such as Swinney, and the SEC’s view on the portal window is one-track mind thinking.

“With January, we are only worried about one thing and that’s the football team,” the Ohio State Athletic Director said to Yahoo Sports. “‘Oh! We got to have everybody there for a second semester because I have to get them in spring ball!’

“If we want to worry about the financial component and the academic component, the best window is the spring,” he said. “They’re only worrying about one thing — the football roster — and I think that mindset is in the past.”

Maybe it is or maybe it is not, but it will be interesting to see what the college commissioners decide to do.

—photo by Kirby Lee / Imagn Images