Athletes in only five sports are required to sit for a season when transferring: men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, hockey and football. In the NCAA's 20 other sports, athletes are allowed a one-time. The difference in the two transfer policies is getting harder to rationalize.
The NCAA continually says athletics should enhance the overall education experience. The experience for the average student includes the ability to transfer schools at will.
"We have five sports that are not allowed to transfer in this day and age. That is something we need to fix," Manuel said. "We need to give all young people flexibility to transfer once. If they transfer a second time, there is no waiver."
2005: Graduate Transfers
2018: Transfer Portal
2020+: One-Time Transfer?
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-proposal-would-a...
Comments
Sounds like a smart business decision...and college football is big business with the "front" of education!
This is guised as "this is for the athletes" (and in the end, it does benefit the athletes) but actually this stinks of more Machiavellian intentions. I think the NCAA realizes how important recruiting plays in the narrative of college sports in terms of driving traffic. This is a move to move towards more of an "NBA-style" free agency so that collegiate sports have enough content to drive interest 365 days a year like the NBA.
I'm not quite sure this benefits the athletes as a whole. It really gives coaches an easier way to make the scholarships work. Which some players might not want to leave. So the year to year scholarship has to be fixed.
The other issue is that the majority of the transfer portal havent been picked up by other teams.
This helps the Brock Hoffman's of the world, but that's a small portion of the transfer portals.
The one unintended consequence is that coaches now have to recruit their own players constantly. Look at all the hard work Wake put in to develop Jamie Newnan and now UGA benefits. Every university in the big ten will be a feeder for OSU.
Side note, Machiavelli's "The Prince" was actually a satire and criticism of the tactics of the families that ran Florence at the time employed.
He would probably be rolling in his grave these days knowing how his name has become associated with the very thing he was skewering
past due
Rich will get richer, but in a world where the players with the best lawyers already get waivers, this does seem to make the process more fair.
This is coming from the same conference who promised 4 year scholarships and whose fans thought that the commitment to a team meant that they shouldn't be allowed to transfer at all. Oh how the turntables.
The "one time transfer with no penalty" policy would make a LOT more sense than the current system where you get a waiver if your school has sway over the NCAA.
The NCAA continually says athletics should enhance the overall education experience.
If' that's the case, what if they only allowed players a one time transfer to only schools that offer their current major?
What about players who legitimately want to change to a major that their current school doesn't have?
The B1G is publicly proposing this because the B1G will almost certainly get the long end of the stick here - not out of concern for the scholar athletes. I expect the SEC to join the choir too.
The five sports which apparently don't do free agency are also arguably among the most visible collegiate sports with future monetary potential (maybe soccer and track & field or perhaps tennis would fit on that list as well - and honestly, how many soccer players or track athletes transfer? And if they do, who notices?).
That's why the others sports offer free agency...if no amount of exposure is going to monetize your school choice, there really isn't a ton of incentive to become a free agent unless you are simply unhappy at your current school.
The decisions for scholar athletes in other sports regarding whether to transfer to a different school - particularly once you're a soph or upperclassman - aren't hugely different from non-scholar athletes.
They're already getting the long end of the stick with waivers, but the complaining by other conferences is getting louder.
Still, I think it's a good idea.
Huh? The stick will only get longer. And what exactly are the other conferences complaining about that this proposal will solve?
I'm surprised (actually I'm not) that people buy into this kind of nonsense as thought it's pure benevolence.
I don't think it's benevolence at all.
Still, I don't see how the stick gets any longer. Seems to me people can transfer both ways.
You get one transfer with immediate playing time.
If you don't think it's benevolence by the B1G to supporting this, what do you think it is?
Yes players can transfer two ways. I didn't say they get the whole stick; just the long end of it.
For programs like Ohio St and Michigan and PennState - and a number of other B1G programs with great facilities and $20-$50 million more to play with - that two way door is basically to push out their recruiting misses and scoop up other programs' successful gambles.
Then once they've hoarded the talent, the door is closed - you're ours now. No soup for you.
That's how the B1G get the long end of the stick. And that's why the SEC will likely be on board too.
I think the idea is overdue and sensible. That said, I think it needs a few qualifiers, for example: minimum GPA to transfer without penalty, minimum years (like 2), or a Head coaching change.
Makes way too much sense, it'll never fly
Just think. The top 5 can instantly reload when their all star team leaves for the pros every year.
Exactly. This is a win-win for the B1G (and likely the SEC). Not so much for other conferences (or probably the athletes even though it seems it on the surface).
If this were possible last year, Nolley and Bede would not be playing basketball at Tech. They would probably be at TA&M. Others probably would have transferred also. Ramifications could be worse than people want to believe. But the top schools will always be golden.