MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – May Day for college football transfer portal entrants is coming up on Sunday, May 1.
 
ESPN senior college football writer Pete Thamel tweeted earlier this week that college coaches have been dealing with a "bustling week" in the NCAA transfer portal.
 
When the NCAA amended its one-time transfer exception, a stipulation was included to add deadlines for all sports. For college football players wishing to take advantage of the NCAA's one-time transfer exception, they must have their written request to enter the transfer portal in by May 1 if they want to participate this fall.
 
Preston Wages, West Virginia University's associate athletics director for compliance and governance, said there are two deadlines for one-time transfers – May 1 for fall and winter sports student-athletes and July 1 for spring sports student-athletes.
 
Those are the hard dates for those planning to transfer in order to be considered for immediate eligibility.
 
"The compliance office has two business days to put that information into the transfer portal," Wages said.
 
Wages said the May 1 deadline is a way to address football coaches' concerns about their rosters as they begin planning for the fall.
 
"If people are transferring, they don't want them transferring the week before camp starts because now they don't have an opportunity to go out and find a replacement," he explained.
 
The net of this is that everyone is going to have a much clearer picture of what their teams are going to look like, beginning next week.
 
"With everything, there are exceptions," Wages noted. "For example, if you are a grad transfer and you don't meet the one-time transfer exception for any reason, whether you previously transferred from a four-year school already, or you didn't put your name in by the deadline, there is what is called a 'previously approved waiver.'
 
"Over time, the NCAA has basically seen enough of the same type of waiver over and over so they put these waivers on a previously approved waivers list and the burden falls on the compliance office to verify all of the checkmarks are met," he said. "If we can verify if they meet all of the requirements, then we can self-apply the waiver without verifying anything with the NCAA."
 
If an athlete left school X in good academic standing and is admitted into an academic program that is not offered at their previous institution, and he wasn't dismissed from the team for disciplinary reasons, etc., then the compliance officer can just verify that those conditions are met as well.
 
Most of this information is already going to be a part of the individual's profile submitted to the transfer portal, with the exception of the individual's desire to study another academic program not offered at their previous institution.
 
"It's a matter of researching the course catalog to see what program they were in and what program they are wishing to pursue," Wages said.
 
Wages said schools will still be adding players, although most likely not at the frenetic pace we've witnessed in the last couple of months. Wages said there have been nearly 1,900 FBS scholarship football players enter the transfer portal so far this year. Coach Neal Brown has indicated that he plans to continue adding to his roster before fall training camp in August, either through the portal or by adding walk-ons.
 
"I think the summer is going to be really key for us," the coach said following last Saturday's spring game.
 
Another hard date coming up is the one-time 25+7 exception, which expires July 31, 2022.
 
"Schools have to use their +7 by July 31," Wages said.
 
After May 1, the expectation is that there is going to be a lot less player movement.
 
"There will be some, but for the most part, a week after May 1 we'll have a pretty good idea of what fall team rosters are going to look like," Wages said.
 
He noted compliance departments across the country are going to be extremely busy at the conclusion of the academic year once final examinations are completed.
 
"Once all of the grades are in, (compliance directors) can go into each players' account and verify that they've met the eligibility rules," Wages said. "After that is completed, their transfer profile account is locked, so every other school out there that looks at them knows their information is not changing."
 
For West Virginia players currently in the transfer portal, this process will be completed in a couple of weeks, but for others on a different academic calendar, it could be much later in the spring or even early summer.