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Things sure are becoming progressive in the old guard of the NCAA, or at least the rules of old are becoming more fossilized. According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellinger and Pat Forde, The NCAA has proposed and is expected to pass legislation that will allow for a one-time penalty-free transfer of student-athletes.
Under the current rules, any undergraduate athlete that wants to transfer to a bigger money-making sport like football or basketball must sit out a year before becoming eligible at the new school. An athlete can apply for an exception to waive the requirement, but the rationale for approving those efforts have been nontransparent, confusing, and somewhat inconsistent.
Current Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields found himself in such a predicament and was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA, but others with seemingly more compelling cases were not.
Under the new proposal that will be voted on in January, a student-athlete would get a one-time transfer without penalty and will become immediately eligible at the new school. It is expected to pass, and if it does, the new rule will go into effect on August 1, 2021 — just in time for next year’s football season.
Athletes will be granted a penalty-free, 1-time transfer starting in 2021, per proposal sent to DI Council & obtained by @SINow. It’s expected to pass in January.
FB/BSK players must notify school of transfer by May 1 each year.
From @ByPatForde & me – https://t.co/cDj6ADiTCY
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 13, 2020
More detail from Sports Illustrated:
In order to transfer and be eligible, athletes must also leave their previous school academically eligible, according to the proposal. An athlete’s previous school would not have any ability to object to the transfer. The legislation prohibits athletes from competing in the same academic season at two different schools.
The NCAA would not impose limits on the number of transfer athletes that a D-I program may accept in a given year, the legislation says. For now, the NCAA is not adjusting the initial counter limit that caps a football team from adding more than 25 players in a year. However, “the committee agreed to study transfer trends in the sport of football to determine whether future modifications to counter limitations are warranted.”
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This proposal in combination with another that aims to move the name, image, and likeness issue forward in a manner the NCAA wants is bound to change college amateurism as we know it. It’s all great when it comes to more freedom for the college athlete, but it’s unknown what number of kids will transfer, potentially causing mass chaos with managing scholarships and recruiting.
The world is moving forward, and whether you like it or not, so is the big business of college sports and the rights of the student-athlete. We’ll have more on this as it moves closer to reality.
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