NCAA proposal allowing all student-athletes ability to transfer without restriction is long overdue

The NCAA’s Transfer Working Group has proposed a way to allow all athletes the ability to transfer without sitting out a year.

Big changes could be coming to college football and college basketball.

Division I student-athletes could soon be allowed to transfer without restriction if a concept by the Transfer Waiver Working Group is adopted by the Division I Council.

This proposal would allow college football, college basketball (men’s and women’s), baseball and men’s ice hockey to have the same freedoms that transfers who play other sports receive.

It’s a move that is long overdue and one that was spearheaded by the Big Ten who proposed the idea of a one-time transfer exemption that was adopted by the ACC. It was only a matter of time until other conferences joined and the NCAA had to react.

“The current system is unsustainable. Working group members believe it’s time to bring our transfer rules more in line with today’s college landscape,” said working group chair Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, via NCAA.com. “This concept provides a uniform approach that is understandable, predictable and objective. Most importantly, it benefits students.”

Under the proposal, there is criteria that need to be met to play immediately. The student-athlete must get a transfer release from their former school, they must be academically eligible, they must maintain academic progress at the new school and they can’t be leaving under suspension.

According to the NCAA, more than a third of college students transfer at least once and the rules put in place by the NCAA hasn’t done anything to dissuade that. And besides, why should student-athletes be forced to stay at a place they don’t want to be? Why should the NCAA mandate a student-athlete stay at a school after his coach left on his own or was fired? What is the purpose of forcing student-athletes to sit out a year?

“More than a third of all college students transfer at least once, and the Division I rule prohibiting immediate competition for students who play five sports hasn’t discouraged them from transferring,” Steinbrecher said. “This dynamic has strained the waiver process, which was designed to handle extenuating and extraordinary circumstances.”

The waiver process has been a circus in college football and basketball. Some transfer athletes were granted waivers to play right away, such as Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. The former Georgia quarterback was a Heisman finalist at Ohio State in his first year on campus. He helped lead the Buckeyes to the College Football Playoff. What would have been the point in making him sit? Other than giving Michigan a sense of optimism they could beat their rivals?

There is no point. And thankfully, the NCAA is beginning to see that.

This will eliminate the bogus transfer waiver denials like the one given to Illinois’ Luke Ford who was denied eligibility this year after transferring from Georgia to be near his ailing grandparents.

The logic in approving and rejecting transfer waivers made as much sense as the end of Game of Thrones.

If you were a quarterback like Fields or Michigan’s Shea Patterson, you got cleared, but if you were anyone else, you probably got shafted.

A one-time transfer exemption is a perfect solution for those seeking a fresh start for whatever reason. Whether the coach who recruited you was fired or left for another job or you’re buried on the depth chart and seeking an opportunity elsewhere, this is going to give more student-athletes an opportunity to play and be happy.

Why would anyone be against either of those things?

Well, if you’re former Georgia and Miami head coach Mark Richt, you don’t like this idea at all because the suspicion is it’ll lead to a divide between the great teams and the not-as-great teams.

In other words, it’s good for the coaches but not for the players.

And I don’t know what college football Richt has been watching, but there has always been a great divide between the top 1 percent in the sport and the rest.

If you don’t believe me, look at the recruiting rankings every year and compare them to the AP Poll. It’s the same teams.

Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Penn State, Michigan, Texas A&M, Texas, Notre Dame, Auburn and Oregon are always going to get the best players and coaches and have an advantage over teams like Purdue, Mississippi State, Wake Forest, Texas Tech or Oregon State.

If you’re afraid of free agency coming to college football and basketball and wrecking the game, I’d suggest taking a deep breath and chanting “serenity now” until you’ve found your balance.

There will be changes, of course, that’s a good thing, but this isn’t going to be the end of college athletics as we know it.

Some of Richt’s skepticism is warranted.

There will be players who are undervalued as high school recruits and go to smaller schools. It happens every year and those players will develop on their own time and in a situation and environment that is conducive to all that. If after a few years that diamond in the rough is now a shiny diamond who caught the attention of Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney, he is already likely eligible to be a grad transfer and transfer without restriction anyway.

There won’t be an influx of players from San Jose State transferring to Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State after their first year. It just doesn’t work that way. College scholarships and roster allotment don’t allow for Saban or others to completely raid another team’s roster.

It will present some challenges, naturally, when it comes to how coaches can target and recruit other players. Think of tampering in the NBA where LeBron James says it’d be nice to play with Anthony Davis when he’s on the Pelicans. The NCAA recognizes those wrinkles still need to be ironed out.

“We know that challenges will exist with this concept, particularly as it relates to other coaches potentially tampering with currently enrolled student-athletes,” Steinbrecher said. “The working group will continue to examine this, as well as any potential financial aid and academic impacts, so the Council can make a fully informed decision.”

If the proposal is approved at the Council’s April meeting, transfers could be free to move about the country in time for the 2020-2021 academic year.

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