Sean Frazier, the AD at Northern Illinois, thinks a “talent acquisition fee" might help the small guys sustain their programs while adding transparency to deals involving some of the 11,000-plus football players across all divisions who enter the portal.

Student-athletes can enter their names into the transfer portal during two different periods for the 2024-25 academic year. The first took place in early December and the second in late April.

The athletic director at a mid-sized school that’s making a splash this season has a modest proposal that might offer one way to tame what many say is a transfer-portal system run amok in college sports.

An athletic director has a proposal for taming what many say is a transfer-portal system run amok in college sports.