The NCAA Division 1 Council has committed to adopt a uniform transfer rule by January 2021.
Under the current rules, student-athletes are allowed to begin playing immediately after transferring in all sports except baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, football and men’s ice hockey. However, most major conferences do not allow students from any sport transferring schools within the conference to begin competing immediately, generally requiring a year of residency at the new institution.
With the new uniform rule, the committee hopes to promote flexibility for student-athletes under all circumstances.
In order to promote the changes, the Division I Council Coordination Committee expanded the Transfer Waiver Working Group adding additional members from the Committee on Academics, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Council standing committees.
The Transfer Waiver Working Group will be charged with studying the effects of transfers on student-athletes, and coming up with a viable solution to the issue that can be translated into the new legislation.
Mid-American Commissioner and chair of the Transfer Waiver Working Group Jon Steinbrecher commented on the group’s new responsibilities, stating,
“This is our last best chance for our membership to take care of our business in this area. It’s fascinating. We kind of have a confluence of things occurring right now. We have name, image and likeness coming to the forefront now; we have transfer issues coming to the forefront right now. We have an obligation here and an opportunity to recraft our rules in a way that they will be understandable, that they will be viewed as fair and predictable and that they will be seen as transparent.”
Once the group comes up with a proposal, the Division 1 Council will have until November 1 to implement it into the 2020-2021 legislation cycle.
Currently, about 7% of students competing in Division 1 athletics are transfer students. However, in recent years there has been an uptake of transfers in swimming, especially with program cuts. During the 2019 NCAA offseason, there were over 348 swimmers in the transfer portal including notable names like Maxime Rooney.
POV: you’re an Indiana or Arizona State commit quaking with the new possibility of it being harder to transfer after your freshman year and keep eligibility.
That’s cool. Now how about tell the college athletics community what is going on with regards to COVID since we have got very little substance.
It’s hard for anybody to tell what’s going on because there is so much uncertainty. It’s nearly impossible to plan because some sources say it’ll be fine to have athletes phasing back but others saying there’s going to be a second wave so everyone should stay home still. Who knows what’s going to happen?
I do believe they said it will be up to the university on how they will bring athletes back for training but that’s it. Don’t quote me on that.
All this transferring is so confusing. These young kids could really learn a lesson about loyalty from Santo Condorelli. He spent his entire NCAA career at USC! Now that’s commitment!
LOL!!!!
Santo as an example of loyalty would probably be less questioned if he hadn’t been a National Team member of multiple countries now (Canada, Italy).
You’re also forgetting he was on the junior national team for the US. Pinnacle of commitment. I look forward to him anchoring France’s relay in Tokyo
Hahaha