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College football has moved one step closer to a new offseason calendar that changes spring football, shortens preseason camp and further condenses the transfer portal window.
The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Oversight Committee this week proposed replacing spring football and summer workouts with 21 on-field practices across two time periods, reducing preseason camp practices from 25 to 21 and shrinking the 15-day winter transfer portal window to 10 days.
Advertisement The proposed changes, announced by the NCAA on Wednesday, are still subject to a final vote by the oversight committee in August.
If approved at that time, they would go into effect on Jan.
1, 2027.
The offseason changes which have been compared to the NFLs OTA-style schedule have been long discussed by coaches as the sport adapts to a longer playing season with an expanded College Football Playoff and more frequent roster turnover because of the transfer portal.
Many teams have used fewer than the allotted 15 spring practices and eliminated spring football games in recent years to reduce wear and tear on their rosters and minimize injury risk.
The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Oversight Committee has also recommended all three of the changes but added one more: FCS schools would be allowed to hold joint practices with another four-year school in the spring.
Offseason practice schedules If the proposal passes, FBS schools would have seven total weeks to conduct their 21 on-field practices, with no single period exceeding five weeks.
Under current rules, schools are allowed 15 spring practices across a 34-day period.
The additional six practices under the proposed rule would be non-contact, without full pads.
Schools would also be required to designate nine discretionary or voluntary weeks where players are not required to perform athletically related activities, up from eight weeks currently.
Craig Bohl, the executive director for the American Football Coaches Association and an oversight committee member, told The Athletic in April that flexibility was key to the proposed changes.
Our thought process is every school and every coach processes things differently, Bohl said.
Some will do spring practice way early.
Other ones will do it as late as they can for a variety of reasons.
But what we wanted to do was to provide more teaching and flexibility.
Advertisement Preseason camp FBS schools would be allowed 27 days to conduct 21 training camp practices.
Currently, schools are allowed 31 days to use 25 training camp practices.
Because rules around coaches access to players in the offseason have been loosened, allowing for more meeting time and on-field work, some coaches dont feel preseason camp needs to be as long as it once was.
Transfer portal window The FBS transfer portal, which moved to a single winter window for the first time this year, would be shortened from 15 days to 10 and would begin on the first business day following Jan.
1.
For the 2026-27 offseason, that means the portal would open on Jan.
4, 2027, and would close on Jan.
13, 2027.
Portal window exceptions for players on teams who play deep into the postseason, beyond the portal windows, would remain.
Those players have five days following the end of their seasons to enter the portal.
This seasons national championship game will be played on Jan.
25, 2027.
Head coaching change exceptions would also remain: A 15-day window opens for players to enter the transfer portal starting five days after the hire of a new coach.