NCAA committee considering 7-figure fines, head coach suspensions for transfer violations

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INDIANAPOLIS — Changes to the college football calendar — and transfer policy — may be on the way.

During meetings this week here, the NCAA Football Oversight Committee coalesced around several concepts related to the calendar and transfers, including a proposal to impose stiff penalties on schools that accept transfers outside of the portal window. Those penalties include a multi-million-dollar fine, multi-game suspensions for head coaches and the loss of roster spots.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the concepts spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity.

The committee relayed some of those proposed penalties later on Wednesday, including prohibiting the head coach from all football (recruiting and on-field coaching) and administrative duties through six games; a fine of 20% of a school’s football budget; and requiring a school to reduce the number of roster spots by five for the next season.

Sources told Yahoo Sports that the committee also took steps toward potential changes to the calendar, including (1) keeping the transfer portal window in January, (2) giving coaches flexibility to move some spring practices to the summer and (3) allowing schools to open the season in Week Zero starting in 2027.

The Oversight Committee — led by Buffalo athletic director Mark Alnutt and Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks — spent the last two days meeting in Indianapolis over the calendar and transfer situation. All of these concepts are only potential recommendations that now enter a socialization and review process among member schools. The recommendations — once formalized this spring — must be approved by the DI cabinet.

The most significant of the concepts — penalties levied on a school and head coach for accepting a transfer outside of the portal window — stands to limit any movement this spring and could spark legal challenges from players and/or schools this spring and summer who wish to switch schools or who recruit a player to their school. The NCAA moved from two portals — December and April — to a single January portal this year.

The penalties may serve as deterrents for schools that wish to enhance their rosters with players from other schools after spring practice by partaking in what is described as “blind transferring” — when a player unenrolls at one school and enrolls at another outside of the portal window. The 15-day portal window in January is meant to be the only route in which players can communicate with coaches from another school without university staff members violating the NCAA’s tampering bylaws.

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