BOWLING GREEN — At some point between now and the start of next football season, Bowling Green expects to use its three remaining open scholarships, and the Falcons likely will dip into the transfer portal to do so — but that's not the complicated part of this offseason.
A confluence of NCAA rules, the coronavirus pandemic, an expected but currently delayed rule change, and timing have created a massive backlog of players in the transfer portal, and Falcons coach Scot Loeffler said the current situation is only hurting the players.
Current NCAA rules mandate that Bowl Subdivision teams are allowed to add no more than 25 new scholarship players per season — called initial counters — though most programs have already burned most of those spots for 2021 thanks to the early signing window in December.