The folks in charge of college football, the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee, are working on major changes to how the sport operates. After witnessing scheduling conflicts for a while, the organisation set to make the football calendar more organized as schools prepare for revenue sharing and roster limits. So, one of the biggest proposed changes is shortening the winter transfer portal window from 15 days to just 10 days, giving players less time to decide whether they want to transfer.

Right now, college football players get a 15-day window from January 2nd to January 16th to pack their bags and hop into the portal. This usually happens right after the hectic New Year’s Six bowl games and the playoff quarterfinals. The new proposal would switch things up by opening the portal on the first business day after New Year’s Day. So, technically, it will run from January 4 to January 13.

Basically, under this setup, the portal opens the Monday right after the College Football Playoff quarterfinals finish. If their whole package gets the green light during the final vote this coming August, the changes will most definitely kick off on January 1, 2027.

The committee is also trying to fix how teams handle their offseason schedules.

The committee is also trying to fix how teams handle their offseason schedules. These updates match the NCAA’s new “5-for-5” eligibility rule, which allows players to compete in five seasons over five straight years. Because of this change, traditional redshirts and many medical hardship waivers will no longer be needed.

Instead of the usual spring football schedule, teams would move to an NFL-style Organized Team Activities (OTA) model. Schools could hold two separate offseason practice periods with a total of 21 on-field practices.

To keep coaches from overworking their players, these two blocks can’t last longer than seven weeks combined, and neither individual block can drag on for more than five weeks.

To make sure these young athletes don’t totally burn out from all the extra year-round football, the NCAA is mandating a minimum of nine voluntary weeks. During these nine weeks, coaches are strictly forbidden from forcing players to do any mandatory workouts or football activities. It’s designed to give the players some well-deserved downtime to just be normal college students, go home, and rest their bodies.

Since teams would receive more practice opportunities during the spring and summer, preseason training camp in August would be shortened. Teams would be limited to 21 practices over a 27-day period, four fewer practices than before.

This change is meant to reduce unnecessary wear and tear on players before the season begins.

College football is already getting used to a tighter schedule. In 2026, the sport got rid of the spring transfer portal, so players only had one chance to transfer during the winter portal window. That meant most teams had their rosters set before spring practices even started.

Under the new proposal, that winter portal period would be shortened to just 10 days in January. It would also remain the only regular window for players to transfer schools. There would still be one important exception. If a head coach leaves for another job, such as an NFL position, players would receive a special 15-day transfer window to decide whether they want to stay or leave the program.

A Whole New Schedule?

Offseason workouts and transfer rules are just one piece of the puzzle, because the committee has an even bigger twist up their sleeve for the game schedule. They previously proposed moving the official start of the college football season up to what we currently call “Week 0,” which would give the entire country an earlier start to the football year.

That change would create a 14-week regular-season calendar featuring 12 games and two bye weeks. The extra week off would give players more time to recover during the season. An earlier start would also make it easier for college football to adjust if the College Football Playoff expands in the future.

At the same time, it would help preserve special events such as conference championship games and the historic Army-Navy game by allowing them to keep their own dedicated weekends on the schedule, perhaps.