Brian Kelly fires back at Ryan Day’s rebuke of transfer portal changes originally appeared on The Sporting News
The SEC football coaches expressed overwhelming support for the proposed move of college football’s transfer portal period from December to January.
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During the conference’s weekly teleconference on Wednesday, Brian Kelly set the record straight about where many coaches in the country sat on the issue. There was no concerns about the overlap with the College Football Playoff schedule.
“I’m sorry, there’s no crying on the yacht,” Kelly said. “We gotta get this thing set and [in] its best position at this time to allow us to set our rosters moving forward.”
This is the direct opposite of what Ohio State coach Ryan Day said earlier this week. The 10-day window would open on Jan. 2, 2026 be immediately after the CFP quarterfinals. Day expressed his concerns over trying to rebuild a roster while in the midst of game preparation. Not to mention, this put some teams at a disadvantage with the timing of it all.
“I just don’t quite understand how teams that are playing in the playoffs are expected to make the decisions and sign their upcoming players while they’re still getting ready to play for games,” Day said Tuesday. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
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Kelly disagrees with the notion there is any connection between the timeline of events. “I’ve talked to many that believe across the country this is the progress that we need to make,” Kelly said.
If approved, the change would eliminate the April transfer window and operate just one in the early part of the year. Imagine NFL free agency on steroids, that’s truly what this will be like. Ten days of chaos with players trying to figure out their next move on the fly. But is there a perfect solution to this problem? Not likely.
“I don’t think there’s any perfect place by any stretch,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “But being able to get guys in school the end of the season for 95 percent of college football is there.”
Kirby Smart took the middle ground. His Georgia Bulldogs team has been a consistent postseason contender and he acknowledged the “nightmarish” scenerio this could present, but accepts there needs to be changes happening.
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“I think some in the Big Ten thought if we have the portal later, kids will have to stay and you’ll have the team ’til the end of the semester,” Smart said. “That’s not realistic. The kids and players that want to leave, that are not happy, I don’t know that they should be staying on campus an extra semester. It’s not a great situation either way, but the better way is the way it out came out, in my opinion.”
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