The NCAA Division I Cabinet passed emergency legislation on Wednesday, implementing penalties for programs that circumvent the transfer portal process.
Programs will now be penalized if they sign a transfer, add a transfer to their roster, or have a transfer participate in athletic-related activities, before the student-athlete has entered the portal.
The rule is intended to put an end to “ghost” or “blind” transfers, which are when a student-athlete leaves their school and enrolls at a new one without entering the portal.
The penalties, which will be automatically triggered, include a suspension of the respective sport’s head coach for 50% of a season and a fine of 20% of that sport’s budget.
As expected, the NCAA DI Cabinet approved one of the strictest measures in recent history: Those schools that add and then play an athlete in any sport outside of the portal window will incur (1) a half-season suspension of head coach and (2) a fine of 20% of that sport’s budget.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) April 1, 2026
The vote came after the Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee proposed the changes in February. The new rules are effective immediately for all Division I sports and apply to all transfers on or after February 25.
Last August, Division I restructured its governance system to reduce the number of committees and streamline decision-making, making it a quicker process for rule changes to be implemented.
“I am grateful the DI Cabinet approved the FBS Oversight Committee’s recommendation to impose significant penalties on head coaches and programs who circumvent transfer rules, along with immediate accountability,” said Clark Lea, football head coach at Vanderbilt.
“This is a necessary step to address a critical roster management issue facing our sport and to protect the integrity of football’s transfer window.”
Although “ghost transfers” haven’t been a known issue in swimming & diving, they came to light last year with cornerback Xavier Lucas, who was a standout freshman at Wisconsin in 2024, and subsequently dropped out and enrolled at Miami (FL) the following season, effectively circumventing the transfer portal.
“This change addresses gaps in the transfer and tampering policies that have allowed for abuse, but we acknowledge that there is more work to do,” said Josh Whitman, chair of the Cabinet and athletics director at Illinois.
“Thanks to the new, more streamlined structure for Division I decision-making, we were able to take a good idea that originated with practitioners, vet it and approve it, all in a matter of weeks. We believe closing this loophole simplifies things for student-athletes and holds schools accountable for their actions.”
Following the conclusion of the Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday, several prominent names, including 2026 finalists Luka Mladenovic (Michigan), Jacob Johnson (Minnesota) and Julian Koch (Pitt), have entered the transfer portal.
The problem here is that Admitting and Enrolling students can take a while, due to documentation requirements. These players want to transfer mid-year, but getting them Enrolled may take longer than the transfer portal is open, and would sometimes need to be done before it opens re: Football.
Basically, the transfer portal timeline isn’t really aligned with Admissions/Enrollment policy in a way that makes any sense.
I wish the NCAA would just mix the old transfer rule with some new stuff: You get one free transfer, unless your coach leaves/gets fired in which case you get another one, and if you transfer again, you have to sit out a year. I feel like that would fix so much.