MOBILE, Ala. — Kalen DeBoer is in favor of a change to the current transfer portal process in college football. During an appearance at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, the Alabama head coach said that he supports a proposal to eliminate one of the transfer portal windows while shortening the remaining window.
Earlier this month, Football Bowl Subdivision coaches voted in favor of a proposal that would reduce college football's transfer windows down to a single 10-day period in January. Such a move must go through the Football Oversight Council and the NCAA’s Division I council before it becomes official.
Currently, there is a 20-day window in December as well as a 10-day window in April.
“I think a smaller window and one window would certainly be ideal,” DeBoer told reporters Tuesday in Mobile while attending a Senior Bowl practice. “And that’s just, more of an understanding of what your roster is gonna be at this time of the year is what we all, just taking the grey out of it, confusion out of it, for us, for our players on what’s ahead.”
Alabama added seven scholarship players through the winter transfer portal while seeing 22 players move on to different schools. The Crimson Tide is currently at 80 scholarship players, five below the NCAA limit. In addition to transfer moves, Alabama signed the No. 4 ranked recruiting class, including the No. 1 overall player in quarterback Keelon Russell.
“I feel really good about what we did, whether it’s with the high school class or filling in some gaps with our portal,” DeBoer said. “And I think the other piece is just the retention of our own team and feel good about where we’re at there. We have a couple spots we could fill, a few, as the rest of the spring and summer comes along. But we always are gonna tweak things and find ways to make it better. But I like, considering it was the first year, what we accomplished with the high school guys. They are in there working. They’re what we thought they would be, whether it’s athletically or just their character and then the work ethic that comes along.”
Alabama will have a chance to add to its roster during the spring window, which will open up from April 16-25. The Crimson Tide will hold a spring camp before that, which will conclude with the annual A-Day Game on April 12.
