The 2025 Men’s NCAA Tournament has naturally dominated much of the conversation around the landscape of college sports. But come Monday, a portion of the talk around college basketball will come about the transfer portal, which former Wisconsin Badgers star football player turned NFL on CBS analyst JJ Watt finds absolutely ridiculous.
On Monday, the college basketball transfer portal will open, providing teams a 30-day window to transform their rosters. The only problem with this, of course, is that any team that ends up making it to the Sweet 16 won’t be able to focus on the transfer portal considering they are still in the thick of their postseason.
This is not an issue that is exclusive to college basketball, either. This past college football season, the winter transfer portal window was from December 9 to December 28, which directly overlaps with bowl season.
JJ Watt made light of this in a post on X, detailing how having a flood of transfer portal information coming in during the NCAA Tournament is essentially “cannibalizing” the sport.
“The NCAA transfer portal opening before March Madness ends (same as football portal opening before bowl season ends) is preposterous,” wrote Watt. “Literally cannibalizing your own sport. Imagine NFL free agency starting the Monday after Wild Card Weekend…”
The NCAA transfer portal opening before March Madness ends (same as football portal opening before bowl season ends) is preposterous.
Literally cannibalizing your own sport.
Imagine NFL free agency starting the Monday after Wild Card Weekend…
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) March 23, 2025
It’s hard to argue anything that Watt said here.
Not only would moving the transfer portal to after the postseason in both college basketball and college football seemingly increase the popularity around the transfer portal. But it would also not penalize teams that make deep runs in the postseason like the current format does.
The transfer portal is already a rather unpopular topic amongst talking heads around college athletics. So perhaps a change in the transfer portal window, like Watt is calling for, would at least make some warm-up to the idea of embracing the concept of the transfer portal.
