The NCAA D1 Council announced several changes to the transfer portal and recruiting for college football and basketball. They also changed the football staff numbers. Here is a rundown of the changes and how they will affect Ole Miss.
Unlimited college coaching staff for the 2024 season
The significant change away from recruiting and the transfer portal was the change to coaching in college football. The new rule was approved for any staff member to provide technical and tactical instruction to athletes during practice and games.
Won't be long until a major P4 program brings on a QB trainer as a QB coach. Other key positions will be special teams and middle linebacker. https://t.co/srpKIOFan1
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) June 26, 2024
The change means analysts and quality control coaches can do more than just the basics of creating a strategy for the game, but not during. It now means coaches can have unlimited staff providing on-field instructions, compared to the 11-countable coaches policy previously.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin must have been confident this would be passed with his staff signings this off-season. The Rebels hired Joe Judge and Zach Arnett as analysts, which would not have been cheap. The hope would have been that both these guys and others would be able to have a more hands-on coaching role from now on. Kiffin will be thrilled that will be the case in 2024.
Minor changes to the recruiting calendar around key dates
The NCAA made changes to the recruiting calendar that could benefit Ole Miss. The significant change was adding a December quiet period, allowing teams to focus on the football postseason and allow on-campus recruiting. The early-signing period would be moved to the first Wednesday after the regular season, before conference championship weekend and the transfer portal opening.
Lane Kiffin and former Alabama head coach Nick Saban had been pushing for the change. If Ole Miss makes the college football playoffs in 2024, the early signing period would not cause disruptions. However, it would still be a few days before conference championship weekend, which could be a problem.
Other notable changes to the recruiting calendar included a 31-calendar-day dead period beginning on July 1. This would mean schools could focus on the new season without worrying about recruiting. The January contract period was also extended, allowing schools to recruit high school juniors and four-year college transfers.
Transfer portal window to potentially reduce again
The NCAA D1 Council discussed a rule change regarding the transfer portal, which must still be passed in October. The window that a college football or basketball player could enter his name into the transfer portal was 45 days. A proposal was made on Tuesday to reduce that to 30 days.
The basketball transfer portal currently opens a day after Selection Sunday for 45 days. The football portal is separated into two points on the schedule: a 30-day window in December and a 15-day window in April.
If the changes are passed in October, college basketball would see a 30-day window open after the second round of the NCAA Tournament. We would have to see how it would affect the football portal. Would we see a stand-alone 30-day window in December? We could possibly see it moved to after the National Championship Game, which would be music to Lane Kiffin's ears.