We are in a brand new era in college football. NIL and the transfer portal began massive change in 2021 and those changes have not stopped four years later. Some big ones are on the way once the House v. NCAA settlement brings revenue-sharing and a clearinghouse for NIL deals to college athletics. But there are some other changes coming to the college football calendar.
Spring practice across the sport could be changing very soon.
A new spring practice proposal was shared with coaches at the ACC spring meetings, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported. It would include adding six contactless OTA-style practices. The proposal of a single transfer portal window continues to be discussed for either January, March, or April. Four months ago, coaches announced that they wanted to eliminate the spring transfer portal window and have a single 10-day window for free agency in January during the AFCA convention in Charlotte.
How teams use these practices would be up to each individual program. Programs could use the OTAs (organized team activities) all in the traditional spring construct or save some for May and June in the summer after spring semesters end across the country. There will likely be multiple defined windows — one in the spring during school and one during summer break — when teams could get on the field and practice.
What would this do for spring games? That is unknown at the moment. Some programs felt that their roster could get poached with a second transfer portal looming. Others felt that they simply didn’t have enough players on the roster with so much transfer movement. With the arrival of roster limits, teams will simply be smaller in numbers and might not have enough players available in the spring to host an intrasquad scrimmage.
There are unintended consequences with every move but it seems that the coaches are really pushing for this extra practice time along with a single 10-day portal window. Some big changes are on the way as soon as the settlement is passed.
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