How the NCAA's New Portal Rules Affect the Florida Gators

The NCAA is enacting a pair of new rules for the NCAA Transfer Portal. Here's how those new rules affect the Florida Gators.

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier was in support of the portal rule changes. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- College football, once again, is going through change.

The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee this week approved a pair of changes to the transfer portal: moving from two portal windows to one and changing rules for transferring after a coaching change.

Florida Gators on SI breaks down what these impending changes mean for the Florida Gators.

Eliminating the Spring Window

The first one, which ultimately removes a spring portal window, has long been debated and was recently brought forth by the FBS Oversight Committee. Under the new rules, there will be a single, 15-day portal window from Jan. 2-16.

Teams that participate in the College Football Playoff, which runs during that 15-day window, will have an additional five days beginning the day after their final game.

The change is one head coach Billy Napier supports. As a member of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Napier was one of many coaches who pushed for one portal window last January.

Napier previously explained that having a spring portal window is largely unnecessary due to most of the roster being finalized after the winter window.

"If you think about it, how many real transactions were taking place this spring? So, 95% of your business is done in the winter," he said last month. "And for us, we're hopeful that we can retain our guys and we can continue to sign really quality high school players and use the portal to patch up guys that opted out for the draft, maybe some attrition that you had, injuries, some of those types of scenarios. So, I think you've seen our approach change each cycle based on the stability of the roster."

Of Napier's four portal classes, comprising of 42 total transfers, only 11 came after spring camp. Of those 11, including now-scholarship corner Cormani McClain, four were walk-ons.

Additionally, Florida believes the portal evaluation process has gotten easier because of previously evaluating them as high school recruits or in a different portal window.

“Now, there is on occasion a guy that we didn’t evaluate, maybe in a lower level, or on a different part of the country," Napier said. "But typically, we have someone that we trust on the other side, and then there's common relationships in the profession, amongst the players, there's common relationships. So I do think that all that has helped us.”

Coaching Changes

According to current rules, players who see their head coach either fired or depart for a new job automatically get 30 days to enter the portal the day after the coaching departure.

The new rules reverse it. Players will now have to wait until after a new coach is hired or announced and will only have 15 days to enter the portal, which begins five days after the announcement.

For the Gators, which have long been the topic of coaching discussions regarding Napier's job security, this changes what players on the roster can do should Florida make a change. Should Florida move on from Napier, players on the current roster would have to wait until his permanent replacement is named.

It's important to note that players on the four schools that have already fired their coach - UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State and Arkansas - are grandfathered in and can still enter the portal within the original 30-day window.