Transfer windows now in place for West Virginia, college football

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown has long asked for periods when the transfer period could be utilized to temper the unlimited free agency that has occurred in college football.

After some initial delays, he’s getting his wish.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors has approved for two separate windows for fall sports athletes such as football to enter the transfer portal.

Those will be a 45-day window beginning the day after championships selections are made in each respective sport and then again from May 1-15. That first window for FBS football would be Dec. 5 to Jan. 18 this season.

For winter sports there will be a 60-day window beginning the day after championship selections are made in each sport and spring sports will be Dec. 1-15 and a 45-day window beginning the day after championship selections are made in each sport.

It addresses a major concern in the sport that Brown has addressed multiple times in the past.

"First of all, let's call it what it is, it's free agency. In what other sport do you have free agency year around? We got to get it into windows, and it has to be feasible for the student-athlete and for the school,” Brown said previously.

The Mountaineers had plenty of off-season turnover this past off-season with the biggest example being Akheem Mesidor heading off to Miami. While most of the departures didn’t come as a surprise, that one left a bad taste in many people’s mouth given how it unfolded.

Brown had previously suggested two separate periods from some point in December until mid-January and a then another running from mid-April until the month of May. The end result is right in line.

Players would have to provide written notice that they intended to enter the transfer portal during one of those two windows and would then be able to start the process of selecting a new school.

The goal would be to battle some of the tampering and other things ongoing with college sports that has made roster management a difficult task for all involved.

This isn’t going to stop that from occurring but it would at least give coaching staffs an idea of when to be on high alert to combat the issue.

The Board of Directors did strike down another measure that had been floated to allow for athletes to transfer multiple times without being forced to sit out a season. Currently there is a one-time exception applied to all transfers and it will remain that way for the time being.

Both of these periods align with times that coaches won’t be necessarily heavily involved with their teams outside of bowl preparation but it should give them an idea of when it could occur.

Brown wanted to have these measures in place, along with plenty of other college coaches, and the end result is a system that should bring more order to the chaos.

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