NCAA overhauls Division I transfer system, giving more power to student-athletes
The NCAA has approved a rule change allowing Division I student-athletes to transfer to another school and receive a scholarship without having to ask their current school for permission.
Under the new “notification of transfer” policy, a student just has to inform the current school that he or she wants to transfer. The school is then required to enter the student’s name into a national transfer database within two business days.
“Once the student-athlete’s name is in the database, other coaches are free to contact that individual,” the NCAA said.
The NCAA’s Division I Council adopted the proposal this week, and it will take effect Oct. 15.
Under the old policy, students were forced to get permission from their current school to contact another school, which gave coaches the ability to limit athletes’ options. In most cases, they would be prevented from talking to schools in the same conference or on future schedules.
“The rule change ends the controversial practice in which some coaches or administrators would prevent students from having contact with specific schools,” the NCAA said.
However, conferences still can make rules that are more restrictive than the new national policy.
“How the conferences proceed is anybody’s guess,” said Yahoo‘s Sam Cooper.
The Division I Council also approved a rule change that makes tampering with a student-athlete at another school a Level 2 violation (“considered a significant breach of conduct”).
“This creates a safe place for student-athletes to have a conversation with their coaches and makes the whole process more transparent,” Nicholas Clark, a former Coastal Carolina football player who is on the council’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said in the NCAA announcement. “This will clean the process up and give more influence and flexibility to the student-athlete.”
Another change may be coming soon, the NCAA said.
“Another financial aid element, autonomy legislation that governs when a school can reduce or cancel aid, may be adjusted next week by the autonomy conferences,” the organization said. “Currently, a student’s notification of intent to transfer at the end of a term is not one of the listed reasons a school can use to cancel aid. The autonomy conferences will consider, by an electronic vote, two different proposals to allow schools to cancel the aid.”
Transfer issues were a topic of discussion last month when Alabama coach Nick Saban was criticized for blocking Crimson Tide graduate players Brandon Kennedy and Maurice Smith from going to other SEC schools.
“Then we should change the rule,” Saban said at the SEC spring meetings. “I don’t think it should be on me. I think we should change the rule. If we agree at the SEC at these meetings that we’re going to have free agency in our league and everyone can go wherever they want to go when they graduate, that’s what’s best for the game, then that’s what we should do. Then Brandon Kennedy can go where ever he wants to go.
“But if we don’t do that, why is it on me? Because we have a conference rule that says he can’t do it. And he can do it but he’s supposed to sit out for a year. So, why is it on me? It’s not even my decision. It’s a conference rule. I always give people releases. And he has a release to go wherever he wants to go, but the conference rule says he can’t go in conference. So, why is that on me?
He then added, “The Maurice Smith thing wasn’t on me either.”
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