Meanwhile, the modern rules governing departing players have changed almost every year.

In football, NCAA rules now provide for only a single transfer portal window each year. The 2025-26 window for both FBS and FCS players is Jan. 2-16.

That’s a major change from the framework during the 2024-25 cycle, in which there was an early window (Dec. 9-28) and a late window (April 16-25), with the latter designed to follow spring practice. Both of those windows had been shortened from those in the 2023-24 transfer cycle.

Although a player can announce his intent to transfer at any time (hence the list below here in mid-December), he cannot enter his name in the NCAA transfer portal until Jan. 2 at the earliest. That official action enables other schools to contact the player — any direct or indirect contact prior to that would violate NCAA tampering rules — and set up campus visits, if desired, but virtually everyone agrees that two-way communication (often involving player agents) and even private commitments already are commonplace, meaning many transfer decisions will be announced on Jan. 2, as the portal opens, and without any campus trips.

The new 15-day transfer portal windows opens one day after the College Football Playoff quarterfinals conclude. Players on the two teams competing in the CFP national championship game on Jan. 19 will get an additional five-day period, from Jan. 20 to 24, to enter the portal.

In another revised rules wrinkle, if a school fires its head coach before or after the portal window, that school’s players will get a 15-day window to transfer that opens five days after the school has hired or announced its next head coach.

In each scenario, the portal window dates govern the timing of a player’s entry into the portal, not the timing of his ultimate transfer decision, although academic calendars (e.g., most major universities begin their 2026 spring semester on Jan. 12 or Jan. 19) often impact the exact timing of a player’s move.

With this year’s portal in mind, the 2026 outgoing transfers from the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 17 programs, divided according to their contributions to the program they’re departing, are listed below.

Important reminder: Under NCAA rules, a player who puts his name in the portal retains the option to stay at his current school without jeopardizing his eligibility. Each year, a very small percentage of potential transfers withdraw from the portal and are welcomed back to their current teams.

Although each player’s situation is unique, generally speaking, schools aren’t concerned about losing little-used veterans or others buried on the depth chart. Often, those transfers can become win-win situations, in which the player finds more playing time elsewhere and the school he’s leaving now has one additional scholarship to offer to an incoming transfer or to a high school senior.

On the other hand, losing proven stars is almost always a bad sign. Losing productive starters is often (but not always) a cause for alarm, too.