ATHENS — The NCAA moved one step closer to finalizing what Georgia football coach Kirby Smart called “the biggest decision” facing college football last spring.

The NCAA Football Oversight Committee voted on Thursday to support a single transfer portal window — as Smart recommended it should as first reported by YahooSports.

The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee is expected to approve the change before Oct. 1, which will lead to a 10-day transfer portal window starting on Jan. 2 and running through Jan. 11.

It’s a departure from the previous transfer portal format, which most recently involved two portal windows, from Dec. 9-Dec. 28 (20 days), and then again from April 16-25 (10 days).

Another part of the change, per the NCAA release, is the entire month of December would become a recruiting dead period.

Smart, speaking at the SEC Spring Meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla., in May, pointed out the complications and dangers with the previous transfer portal format.

“Let’s sign our high school recruits first,” Smart said, referring to the most recent early signing day, on Dec. 4. “Then let’s figure out in January when the semester break ends who’s staying and who’s going.”

Smart, who has seen some top Georgia talent transfer out over the past few years, said maintaining a second portal window in April would delay team building and increase the likelihood of tampering.

“You think tampering is a problem? Put that portal in April and see what teams do in January, February, and March,” Smart said. “Just think about it now, because we’re getting ready to make a big decision, and a lot of people believe, ‘well, the kids won’t be able to leave if we put it in April, they’ll have to stay the next semester.’

“Oh no, they’ll be on your campus getting tampered with, collecting 33 percent of your cap before they leave with it. I’m not for that.”

The Jan. 2 portal window comes with complications, as there will still be four teams playing in the College Football Playoff, but 132 of the FBS teams will have their respective seasons complete.

Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, like Smart, voiced support for the January transfer portal window.

“I always lend to what are the professional models, and what do they seem to look like,” Elko said last May. “It certainly seems that free agency happens once, not twice, and it happens after the season and before you start practicing.

“That seems to be the landscape for every single professional league across the world.”