Transfer portal windows for men’s and women’s college basketball could change under new proposal

The men’s and women’s college basketball transfer portal windows would be shortened to 15 days and would open after the men’s and women’s Final Fours under a measure proposed by the Division I men’s and women’s basketball oversight committee.

The Division I Cabinet is scheduled to review the proposal in January. If approved, the legislation would take effect in April.

Under these proposals, the Division I women’s basketball notification-of-transfer window would be open from April 6-20. The men’s window would be open from April 7-21.

“I think it’s a good call. It’s a good call. I mean, people know where they’re going. It’s an open market, even when you’re in the season. People are making calls, people are making decisions for the next opening of the transfer portal, today in real time. I mean, it’s weird, but that’s the world we live in,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “Since we’ve been in the Final Four the last couple of years, we haven’t been able to just capitalize in it, because we’re playing so long into the season, we can’t have them on campus during the times that people are having transfer portalees on campus.”

The transfer windows currently open after the second round of the Division I men’s and women’s tournaments, and they stay open for 30 days.

The oversight committees also proposed a change regarding when student-athletes can request to enter the transfer portal after a coaching change.

Under this proposal, there would be a five-day period for a new staff to meet their current players after a head coaching hire is announced. When those five days are up, student-athletes would have a 15-day window to notify their school about entering the transfer portal.

“If you have a transfer portal that’s open during the NCAA Tournament, you are going to force administrations to make rush decisions on coaching carousel decisions,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “Because everyone’s going to try to have to have their coach hired by the time that the portal opens. So there’s a lot of people that are going to rush through that, and it’s just going to increase the amount of tampering that’s going to be encouraged to take place during the most important time that we want to showcase the best of the best in our game.”

If a new head coach isn’t hired within 30 days of the previous coach’s departure, that 15-day window would start beginning on the 31st day.

But if a coaching change is made after Jan. 1, student-athletes would have to wait until the notification-of-transfer window opens in April.

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AP freelancer Willie G. Ramirez contributed to this story.

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