Your season ended.
Your recruiting didn’t.
Most seniors believe the cycle closes when their last game does. It does not. The roster spots that produce late offers are created by the winter transfer portal window — and that window has not opened yet.
Here is what actually happens between now and February, and what to do in each window.
- Now — Dec 1
Boards are being built
Seasons are ending, staffs are finally watching film again, and the class of 2027 board is being sorted. Nothing is signed and nothing is settled.
Get current film posted and get it in front of staffs. A coach who checks you now and finds September tape assumes nothing changed since September.
- Dec 2 – 4
Early signing period
The first signing window for the class of 2027. These are almost entirely players a staff has known about for a year or more — committed kids making it official.
If you are not signing this week, you have not missed anything. This window takes the names that were already on the board in August.
- Jan 4 – 13
Winter transfer portal window
Ten days — shortened from fifteen for this cycle. Every scholarship player in the country decides whether to leave, and rosters come apart before they come back together.
This is the event that creates your opportunity. Until it closes, a staff does not know how many spots it has at your position.
- Mid-Jan – Feb
The holes appear
Staffs count what the portal took, fill what they can from it, and find out what is still missing. A program that lost two offensive linemen in January needs two offensive linemen in January.
This is the highest-leverage month of your entire recruitment, and most of your competition stopped emailing in November.
- Feb 3
Regular signing period opens
The second signing window. Every year it takes players who were unsigned in December — the ones a staff needed after the board moved.
This is your actual deadline. Not December. Kids sign in February every single year, and they are the ones who were still visible in January.
Dates shown are the 2026-27 FBS and FCS cycle. The NCAA adjusts these — confirm anything you are planning around with your high school coach.
The math nobody explains to seniors.
players on a roster
and roughly 25 of them turn over every year through graduation, transfers and attrition.
days of portal
Jan 4-13. Until it closes, no staff knows how many spots it actually has at your position.
regular signing day
nine weeks after the early period. Players sign in it every year, and they were visible in January.
A program that loses three defensive backs to the portal in January needs three defensive backs in January. It will not go looking for you. It will work from the names already in its inbox — which is the entire reason to still be sending in December and January, when most of your class has stopped.
What to do between now and February.
Put current film up and keep it current.
Your senior season is in the can. Cut it now, lead with the plays that prove your position, and label every clip with down and distance. Film from September tells a January coach you stopped.
Email staffs directly — and ask the one question that gets answered.
Not "do you have a spot." Ask whether they expect an opening at your position after the portal window, and what they would need to see from you. That is a question a coach can answer in one line, and the answer tells you where to spend January.
Widen the list past the logos.
FCS, Division II, Division III, NAIA and JUCO all sign players in February, and their staffs answer email because they are not getting a thousand a week. A list of six FBS schools is not a list.
Keep your grades moving.
A core GPA that rises this semester reopens schools that passed in October. It is the only lever in recruiting that works without anyone else saying yes.
Email 2,000+ college coaches from your profile.
ONE11’s outreach tool puts your film, your measurables and your transcript in front of college staffs in a message built to get opened — filter by division, by state and by position, ask directly about roster availability after the portal, and track who viewed your profile afterward.
It is the difference between hoping a staff finds you in January and being the name already in the inbox when they go looking.
More on film, eligibility and the money side in our recruiting resources, or browse the class of 2027 board.