Inside The Huskies

Husky AD Pat Chun Calls for One Transfer Portal

The UW athletic department leader lobbied for a single window sometime in the spring.
Dan Raley|
Pat Chun obliges a fan with a postgame selfie.
Pat Chun obliges a fan with a postgame selfie. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Pat Chun took a break from bear-watching and fishing in Alaska on Wednesday to address one of the more pressing college football issues -- limiting the transfer portal to one window rather than two.

Appearing on the Triple Option podcast with former Ohio State and Florida football coach Urban Meyer from a rustic building somewhere in the 49th state, the University of Washington athletic director called for a spring portal only to limit the personnel drawbacks for teams in the postseason and to keep rosters better intact.

"We've got to rethink our football calenders," Chun said. "We've seen spring football changes right before our eyes -- a lot of coaches aren't using it for what it was."

Currently, players are permitted to enter the portal in December and again in April, causing significant team disruptiions during each window.

Chun pointed out how players have left their teams during preparations for College Football Playoff games because they can't wait any longer to shop themselves around, with Penn State back-up quarterback Beau Pribula a prime example. He ended up at Missouri while his team hoped nothing would happen to starter Drew Allar.

Chun's reference to spring football involved coaches refusing to hold concluding games at the end that they feel have come to serve as scouting platforms for other teams to come in and coax players to leave.

Husky coach Jedd Fisch has continually mentioned how the NFL doesn't let anything distract from its playoff system all the way to the Super Bowl and has suggested that college teams do something similar until a national champion is crowned.

Chun said the Big Ten seems to be in agreement that this is the way to go.

"I will say that when we met as a conference in the springtime, we contemplated and discussed all the merits of where the portal should be," the UW athletic director said. "I think we all came to a consensus that there needs to be one singular portal sometime in the spring."

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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