Kirby Smart says SEC coaches want clarity on transfer portal - ESPN

DESTIN, Fla. — The major theme lingering over the SEC's annual meetings is an air of uncertainty hanging over the future of the sport. With the fate of the House case, the College Football Playoff format and the league's football schedule in flux, there's plenty of complex and transformative issues.

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart made it clear, however, there's one issue of paramount important to the SEC's football coaches — clarity on the future of the NCAA transfer portal.

«So, the biggest decision that has to be made across football right now, to me by far, is when is the portal window and is there one or two,» Smart said on Tuesday morning.

Right now, there's two NCAA transfer portal windows, one in December at the end of the regular season (Dec. 9 to Dec. 28) and one post-spring (April 16 to 25).

Coaches are generally in support of a single window, but myriad issues from the timing of it to the impact of the academic calendar to the future of spring practices loom over the potential placement of that window. There's also the concern of whether limiting transferring — by going from two windows to one — would end up being challenged legally.

Among SEC coaches, the topic resonated. Smart, who is the league's second-longest tenured coach, said that there's a «large contingency» of coaches that's «growing» who want a portal in April or May and then to have OTA-style practices in June.

Smart does not like that idea, as he said Georgia uses 10 days in June to hold camps, which is a key in recruiting and evaluating. June has also become the biggest month for official visits on the calendar. He noted that having to practice at that time would be too much.

«Needless to say, I'm a proponent for a January, wherever it fits,