Nick Saban Chimes in on Transfer Portal Changes

While there was a multitude of factors that went into Nick Saban's decision to retire from Alabama in 2023, it's probably safe to say that the NCAA's handling of the transfer portal was, at least in small part, one of them.

The NCAA Transfer Portal was established in the fall of 2018 as a means of simplifying the transfer process for both student-athletes and universities. For those unaware, the portal itself operates as an online platform in which universities that have been notified of a student-athlete's intention to transfer will make that student-athlete's contact information available to other schools.

Since its inception, the portal has seen several changes, ranging from the implementation of transfer windows in 2022, to the abolishment of the one-time transfer rule in 2024.

Just recently, the NCAA voted to approve one of its most significant changes yet: dissolving the spring transfer window and shifting the winter window to a period further back in the college football calendar.

The former Alabama head coach joined "The Pat McAfee Show" this week and shared his thoughts on the upcoming change to the transfer portal.

"I think one transfer portal is a good thing..

We're forcing people in college to move more to the NFL model in terms of organization..

You're expanding operations to be able to manage this kind of circumstance" ~ Coach Saban #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wwFNRd7WRr
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 19, 2025

Saban said, "I think one transfer portal [window] is probably a good thing," he continued," I think when you have your team in the spring and you go through spring practice, you go through the offseason program, then all of a sudden guys leave, it's probably not great for them in terms of the next place they go, and it's not great for you in terms of managing a roster."

The seven time national champion elaborated, saying, "I think that we're forcing people in college to move more to the NFL model in terms of organization... [Alabama] had a general manager and a personnel department, and I seperated it from the portal, to college recruiting."

"I had different guys over here evaluating guys in the portal, and I had different guys over here evaluating guys in high school... So you're expanding staff and operations to be able to manage this circumstance," Saban said.

The former coach dove deeper into his problems with the transfer portal as a whole, saying, "I hate to bring this up because this is all about football, but everytime you transfer, you've got 20 percent less chance to graduate. Nobody ever talks about education anymore."

"What if you're a guy and you're making 700 thousand dollars a year playing college football, and you don't graduate? And you don't play in the NFL? What kind of job are you getting when you get out of school?," he ranted.

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