NCAA Considering New Transfer Rules

[SalsaKat]

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/...it-out-a-year/

Highlights of the proposed changes:

Free Transfer With a 2.6 GPA: Student-athletes with a 2.6 GPA need not sit out a year. That’s the threshold for not affecting the school’s APR rating. It lets college presidents convince themselves academics is a crucial part of the equation.

Permission tied to participation and practice, not scholarships: A student can transfer without permission. Unlike now, he/she would be eligible to receive a scholarship, though he/she would be banned from any participation for one year.

Transfers Would Not Cost Eligibility: The five-year clock is not affected. Student-athletes forced to sit out would not lose a year of eligibility.

Tampering Would Be a Huge Deal: Tampering with a student-athlete would be a grave sin under the NCAA punishment regime. The NCAA wants to avoid the logical abuse of freer player movement, having a football player have a break out season at FIU and then have LSU, Alabama and Florida recruiting him to transfer. It works in theory, though it is unclear how this would be proven or enforced.

I want to go ahead and say I hate it. High majors would just stick the kids they didn't have room for in a mid-major like they would a prep school or a junior college, then call them up once they had room the next year (or not, if a better recruit came along), or at the very least go headhunting every offseason. Let's face it, this would become Calipari's MO for filling out a roster with experienced players; he already did this with Julius Mays. While it would be good for us, I think it would be bad for the sport overall. Not to mention the players shopping around, every summer.

The only change I would support would be the one to prevent coaches from blocking transfers. If a kid wants to transfer he shouldn't be told he can't go to such and such a school. Remember when Phil Martelli pulled that garbage just to be on a power trip? What a tool. But the year lost should remain. Otherwise kids become journeymen playing at a new school every year, or even every semester, and programs that aren't the big dogs would struggle to build a roster.

[Catfan73]

In the case of a coaching change, I don't have too much of a problem with players not sitting out a year after transferring, though even that has a rather mercenary feel to it. I agree with your assessment of the big football programs using the smaller programs as a sort of minor league for developing future players for them. It would work both ways--couldn't you see Saban "sending down" two or three seldom-used players to South Alabama in exchange for one really good lineman?