NCAA's latest decision makes life easier for Penn State after James Franklin's firing

The clock won't start until the university names the permanent replacement.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

The NCAA just recently removed the automatic 30-day transfer window that used to open the day after a head-coaching change. Effective immediately, football players now get a 15-day portal window that begins five days after a school hires or publicly announces its next head coach. For Penn State — hours removed from firing James Franklin — this means there is no immediate, midseason portal rush. The clock won't start until the university names the permanent replacement.

Sources: Penn State has fired James Franklin.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 12, 2025

NCAA's new transfer portal rule

Under the old rule, Penn State's roster would have had 30 days to enter the portal starting today, a setup that often triggered midyear exits before a new staff could even meet the team. The revised exception changes things as administrators can run a proper search, and the incoming coach gets a short onboarding runway before any departure window opens.

When the hire is made public, five days later the roster will have 15 consecutive days to enter the portal. This change arrived earlier in October as part of a broader portal overhaul that moves the sport to one national window in January (Jan. 2–16 starting in 2026) and eliminates the spring window. Grad transfers also must now wait until Jan. 2 to enter. For teams still playing after the semifinals, the NCAA added an extra five-day entry period after the national title game. All of that reduces in-season transferring and keeps roster movement clustered around the winter enrollment calendar.

There's also an important fact to note: programs that changed coaches before this week’s vote remain under the old 30-day rule. Those teams would include Arkansas, Oklahoma State, UCLA and Virginia Tech. Each of those programs were grandfathered in this fall. Penn State is not in that group, so the new 15-day-after-hire timing applies to them.

Big picture, administrators pushed for this exact tweak to curb midseason exits and the perception that a firing automatically opens the floodgates. By tying the exception to the arrival of the next coach (with a shorter clock), the NCAA aligned the rule with hiring timelines and gave programs like Penn State a manageable bridge from dismissal to transition.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Penn State will still need to recover the recruiting trail as this rule obviously does not impact high school football players. Since the firing was announced, the Nittany Lions have received multiple decommitments from high profile recruits. Penn State named longtime assistant Terry Smith as the interim head coach.