Ohio State Football: NCAA shortening transfer portal window

The Ohio State football team has utilized the transfer portal for depth at certain positions when necessary. Of course, Justin Fields is the most famous transfer portal example as he went on to lead the Buckeyes at quarterback for two years after coming in from Georgia.

Transfers seem to have gotten a bit out of hand. The NCAA is trying to corral that. They have shortened the transfer window in both football and basketball. In football, it is now just 30 days after the season and 15 days after Spring ball. In both men’s and women’s basketball, it’s 45 days.

While the football team hasn’t used the transfer portal a ton, the Ohio State basketball team has. They brought in four transfers from last season. It will be interesting to see how this affects both programs moving forward once the season ends in January.

I assume that football players will just make up their minds sooner. If the Ohio State football program wants to bring in more players, that recruiting gets done sooner. If an Ohio State football player wants to leave, they will reach out to other schools sooner.

The same thing will happen in basketball too. Overall, I think this is a good change to enact. This makes things easier for coaches on the recruiting front and makes them make roster decisions faster. It also helps them let kids know if they are no longer a part of the program’s plans so they can go elsewhere sooner too.

There still is no answer on how the NCAA is going to fix the clear tampering issue that is out there with players being contacted by other schools to enter the transfer portal. But why would the NCAA actually fix anything that needs fixing? They haven’t done that for three decades.

I’m interested to see how many Buckeyes transfer following this season.