SMU coach Rhett Lashlee calls for end to December portal window

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee suggested the December portal window should be eliminated, decrying that players have to make decisions about whether to transfer or play in the College Football Playoff.

Speaking Tuesday during his news conference before a CFP first-round matchup against Penn State on Saturday, Lashlee said having an open portal window while prepping for postseason games is "terrible," while also noting the decision that Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula made to enter the portal.

"I feel so awful for our kids and kids around the country," Lashlee said. "There's no other sport at all that has free agency in the season. It's sad. It's terrible. You hear the story about their backup quarterback saying, 'I don't have a choice.' That's wrong. That's unacceptable. That's not OK. He shouldn't have to make that decision.'"

SMU backup quarterback Preston Stone, who lost his starting job in Week 3, has chosen to stay with the Mustangs for their playoff run, but Lashlee said, "We're working with him, but it's still a juggling act."

The December portal window opened Dec. 9 and closes Dec. 28 -- although players whose teams made it to the CFP have a five-day window to enter, starting the day after their season ends.

"The real easy thing is you don't have a transfer portal in December. That's the real easy answer, and it solves all the problems," Lashlee said. "Why in the world would we put kids in a position where they've got to decide, do I transfer or play in the playoff? Do I transfer or play my bowl game? Scholastically, it doesn't make sense either, because your years end in May, not in December."

Lashlee said college football has to take another look at the calendar to help alleviate what is happening now. In addition to players who may be considering a transfer, Lashlee said, "People are bombarding our roster, trying to pick people off our roster, and we're trying to focus on the playoff. So yeah, it's real easy: Don't have a transfer portal in December. Go to the spring."

If that were to happen, Lashlee said they should also consider moving more toward an NFL model when it comes to spring practices, which would begin after the portal closes -- like OTAs in the NFL.

"We talk about making a system that is all great for [players], but we haven't," Lashlee said. "That's part of your job as adults, is do what's best for young people, not what they want necessarily, and they don't want this. Yes, they want the ability to transfer and go where they want to go if they don't like their situation. Yes, they want the ability to make money on their name, image and likeness. Neither one of those are bad things.

"We coaches have been saying this for the last three or four years with all these changes, and what happens is we just make all these random changes because we don't want to get sued, or we don't want to do this, we don't want to do that. We don't think about the long-term effects it has on the young people that we're supposed to be serving."