Joel Klatt: Coaches in full panic over spring transfer portal. How do we fix it?

The spring transfer portal opens on Tuesday and coaches around college football are in full panic over it. 

Just like the transfer portal period at the end of the regular season, players can enter it whenever they desire as it's open for two weeks. There are also very few, if any, parameters around the spring transfer portal period, just like it is for the winter transfer portal window.

I've already spoken with numerous coaches this offseason as I was on the sideline for FOX's broadcast of Ohio State's spring game on Saturday, and at no point over the last couple of years have I sensed the level of panic from coaches about this particular portal period.

Those coaches' concerns are indicative of where we're at with the portal. The NCAA has given notice to the schools and to the programs that they aren't going to enforce rules that are currently on the books. We saw what happened with the Tennessee and Virginia case in February, where a judge prevented the NCAA from enforcing its name, image and likeness (NIL) rules through an injunction. The NCAA didn't want to deal with any more litigation and threw its hands up, essentially saying "have at it."

So, this spring transfer window is set to be a free-for-all. In last year's spring transfer window, most players entering the portal were ones who lost position battles during spring ball and were looking at possible places where they could play. At this time last year, coaches weren't that excited about the spring transfer window because they didn't feel there were going to be many great players available, at least not enough to shake up the roster. 

Now that everyone can essentially transfer an unlimited number of times, any transfer window becomes a leverage point for players.