‘Crazy’ college football transfer portal challenges on tap, window opens Friday

Georgia coach Kirby Smart said it’s a challenge to be preparing his team for a College Football Playoff run while also negotiating contracts with current players to stay or incoming players UGA plans to add through the transfer portal.

“I can’t express all the things that are going on, when you’ve got kids officially visiting places they’re currently at — they’re going to go in the portal and then official visit the place they’re currently at?” Smart said on Tuesday at the Sugar Bowl media day.

“It’s crazy what’s out there.”

Last year, there were two designated transfer portal windows: one in the winter (Dec. 9-28) and one in the spring (April 16-25).

Smart, now the dean of SEC coaches with his 10 years leading the Georgia program, led the charge at the league’s spring meetings for eliminating the spring portal window.

“You think tampering is a problem? Put that portal in April and see what teams do in January, February and March,” Smart said last May. “Just think about it now, because we’re getting ready to make a big decision, and a lot of people believe, ‘Well, the kids won’t be able to leave if we put it in April, they’ll have to stay the next semester.’

“Oh no, they’ll be on your campus getting tampered with, collecting 33% of your cap before they leave with it. I’m not for that.”

Ohio State coach Ryan Day, whose program has benefited as much as any from high-profile portal additions, was not a proponent of eliminating the spring portal window.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea at all, (and) in the conversations we had with Big Ten coaches, I think the majority of them agree,” Day said last September.

“I just don’t quite understand how teams that are playing in the playoffs are expected to make the decisions to sign their upcoming players while they’re still getting ready to play for games.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Smart said this week in New Orleans that, even with the reduction to one portal window, there are still issues with players being distracted.

“All your buddies are out there right now, everybody’s announcing what they’re doing, announcing that I’m going into the portal, announcing that I’m re-signing,” Smart said. “How about you announce that you’re getting better and you’re going to practice?”

Oregon coach Dan Lanning is a proponent of shortening the season by eliminating the weekends off teams do not play in December.

“Even if it means we start Week Zero or you eliminate a bye, the season ends Jan. 1, and then the portal opens,” Lanning said.

“Then coaches that have to move on to their next opportunities get to move on to their next opportunities,” Lanning said, referencing an increasingly high number of coaches who are leaving their programs before the end of the season, including former Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who accepted the LSU job before the Rebels began their CFP run.

“It’s hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they’re going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal, everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these playoff games happen a lot faster.”

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Georgia defensive lineman Jordan Hall (left) and teammates enter the ballroom during the Sugar Bowl media day at the Sheraton on Tuesday. Georgia and Ole Miss will face off Thursday in the quarterfinal game. (Jason Getz/AJC)