MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – The hottest topic at SEC spring meetings this week isn’t the future of the College Football Playoff format, according to its most prominent football coach.
It’s not the looming NCAA v. House settlement, and what all happens once revenue sharing goes into effect.
It isn’t whether the SEC should move to nine conference games, a debate that has been raging for years at this annual event without resolution.
According to CBS Sports’ No. 1-ranked college football coach, the most important issue is the transfer portal window. And Kirby Smart’s frustration offers a window into why the SEC — and the other Power Four conferences — are so eager to take more control over the NCAA governance process, if not break off from the NCAA altogether, to pass common-sense transfer reform.
“The biggest decision that needs to be made in college football right now, by far, is when is the portal window and is it one or two,” Smart said. “That’s not being decided by us today. A lot of people don’t even know how it’s being decided and who is deciding it.”
SEC coaches like Smart want transfer portal eligibility reduced from two windows (winter and spring) to only one and to reduce the overall number of transfer portal days available. Currently the portal periods run from Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25. The December period is especially irksome to coaches that have to balance early signing period, the transfer portal and preparing their teams for postseason games.
Slow changes
There are mixed opinions on the dates and length for a singular portal window — more on that later — but it hasn’t happened yet despite widespread approval amongst Power Four coaches.
At the American Football Coaches Association meetings in January, the group voted to endorse only one portal window. AFCA executive director Craig Bohl told CBS Sports that one window would benefit both players looking to maximize their value and coaches looking for more consistency.
“We’re supportive of one and we think that’s fair and that’s going to give more stability for players and coaches,” Bohl said.
The push for one transfer portal window isn’t a new development, though.
So why hasn’t it happened? It’s at the heart of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s frustration has with a NCAA structure that doesn’t anoint the Power Four conferences with the rule-making authority that their stature and wealth would seem to warrant.
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A weighted vote
Currently, the Power Four conferences are pushing for a weighted vote that would give them 65 percent of the power on rule-making committees. Even that amount, which would give the Power Four conferences significantly more power than they have now, still comes with risk. One high-ranking source said there are concerns that all it takes is one conference not voting with the others — or even ceasing to exist altogether if there’s further realignment and consolidation — to prevent approval for solutions. Sankey said Monday that he’d like to see that weighted vote go up to at leas 68 percent to avoid some of those issues.
Multiple Big Ten and SEC sources have expressed extreme frustration to CBS Sports about being unable to push through changes because smaller conferences won’t support it. The transfer portal situation has been especially frustrating that the conferences that would seemingly benefit from not having a spring transfer portal window won’t go for it just because the SEC and others want it. The SEC’s representatives on those committees have made those arguments to no avail, according to sources. When you have conferences that didn’t hesitate to fully fund the $20.5 million cap and others that won’t spend a dollar on revenue sharing voting on the same issues, you can see how it can go awry quickly.
The SEC’s success, in particular, has seemed to hurt its ability to make rule changes when smaller conferences question its motives.
“It’s really hard to be playing in a championship setting and having to deal with it, but when I brought that up as a complaint or problem it was told to me, ‘There’s no crying from the yacht,'” Smart said. “If you’re going to play in these environments you have to be willing to do that. Now it’s we can’t do that.”
Smart believes the implementation committee, which includes two athletic directors from each power conference, will ultimately have say over the transfer portal.
Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts, one of the SEC’s two ADs on the committee, believes there are multiple steps that need to happen before transfer portal windows become the paramount issue. Before the committee could consider addressing it, first the settlement has to actually be approved and the new College Sports Commission entity needs to get up and running which will include hiring a chief executive officer.
“Of course the coaches, the number one thing on their list is the transfer portal and the calendar, and that all makes sense,” Alberts said Tuesday. “But none of that matters if we can’t get all this stuff done over here first. I think there’s a logical sequence to it.”
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The future of the portal window
Even if the Power Four conferences get all the necessary entities on board to move to only one portal window, it will creat another sticky issue. Smart lobbied hard for a January transfer window. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables prefers February because “it’s one of the slowest times of the season.” Unlike professional leagues, however, college football still has to contend with academic schedules that could make it difficult for athletes to transfer and be admitted into new schools in the middle of an academic semester.
Smart would like to see a transfer portal move out of December, but he’s most concerned about the only window occurring in the spring. The Georgia coach said there is a growing contingency pushing for the portal window to move to only April, with at least some Big Ten coaches on board with that idea.
“If you think tampering is a problem, put that portal in April and see what teams do in January, February and March,” Smart said. “Just think about it now. We’re getting ready to make a big decision and a lot of people believe a kid won’t be able to leave if we put it in April, they’ll have to stay the next semester. Oh no, they’ll be on your campus, getting tampered with, collecting 33 percent of your cap before they leave with it. I’m not for that.”
Smart’s comments show how even the most powerful people are still at the mercy of a bureaucratic system long overdue for a change. Getting consensus on any issue has never been more challenging.
If you wonder why the SEC and others are so intent on wresting control over more of the NCAA decision-making apparatus, the transfer portal debate is as easy an example there is.
CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello contributed to this report.
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