NCAA Proposes Significant Penalties for Coaches, Programs Taking Transfers Outside Portal

Transfers have once again been a subject of major offseason strife in college football. The issue hit a peak in late January when Clemson coach Dabo Swinney took public aim at new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding, calling him out for tampering with linebacker Luke Ferrelli—who had recently transferred in from Cal—alleging that Golding was texting him during early morning classes asking about the buyout in his deal with Clemson. Ferrelli, who joined Clemson on Jan. 7 during the open transfer portal, transferred again to Ole Miss on Jan. 22, just under a week after the closure of the portal on Jan. 16.

“We turned everything into the NCAA,” Swinney said. “There’s tampering and then there’s blatant tampering.”

And now it appears that the NCAA is moving forward on dealing with said tampering. The NCAA Division I FBS oversight committee released a recommendation for emergency legislation to punish coaches and schools for taking transfers outside of the portal period, and the proposals are quite punitive. From the NCAA:

The head coach would be prohibited from all football (recruiting and on-field coaching) and administrative duties (team meetings) for six contests.
The school would be fined 20% of its football budget.
The school would be required to reduce the number of roster spots by five for the next season, regardless of the head coach's employment status at the school.

The proposals go to a vote during a Division I cabinet meeting in April, and would go into effect immediately if passed.

“We felt this was appropriate to place an emphasis on this rule with where we are in Division I football,” said Buffalo athletic director Mark Alnutt, chair of the committee. “We have a window for student-athletes to notify their school when they would like to enter the Transfer Portal. If there is movement without going through the process as it is legislated, the committee felt there needed to be significant penalties.”

The NCAA oversight committee has also discussed rule changes around official visits, spring football practice, season scheduling

Included in the NCAA’s release is a proposal to eliminate the annual limit on official recruiting visits, which has been permitted under a blanket waiver for the last two years as is.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, a number of other proposals that the NCAA has not yet publicized were also discussed, including changes to spring practice that could allow programs to hold some sessions over the summer.

The in-season schedule is also under examination, and the NCAA is considering a move to turn “Week Zero” into the official, full-send start of the college football season. Week Zero, which in 2026 will take place on Saturday, Aug. 29., has traditionally been reserved for games involving teams who play Hawai’i during the season or have games outside of the country. This year’s slate features a North Carolina-TCU game in Ireland and an NC State-Virginia contest in Rio de Janeiro.

Should the College Football Playoff ultimately expand to beyond its current 12-team format, the schedule will likely need to be bumped up in order to avoid the postseason dragging even further into January than it already does, so a change to Week Zero may be inevitable in the near future already.

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