Very quietly, the NCAA has moved to change its transfer waiver rule. Brian Cook explains the background for that:
Why make the change? In recent years more and more players had been trying to get transfer waivers for increasingly dubious reasons. It was getting ridiculous, and threatened to create more of an open market for transfers than there was before. (You may think that’s a good idea; the NCAA does not.)
Instead the NCAA will offer a one-year extension of the five year clock* in circumstances that warrant it. IE: if you’ve already redshirted you can make a hardship transfer without losing a year of competition.
All of which should offer great comfort to Khari Harding and his family.
You know, it’s still amazing to me that an organization that spent years crafting arcane limits on bagel toppings and has a rule book for which complex as a description is almost an understatement can’t roll up its sleeves and spend some time and effort crafting a protocol that actually benefits student-athletes instead of simply being done to make life easier for itself.
Okay, okay… somewhat amazing to me. Geez.
Get The Picture 
Any organization that makes me agree with Brian Bosworth is seriously f’d up.
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The Huffington Post’s lead story today is Senator Bluto accepting a job at the NCAA as Director of Rules.
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They couldn’t pay me enough for that job, thanks.
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Your last sentence / paragraph…for which complex as a description is an understatement… 🙂
You really throw your fingers into it when it’s the NCAA, Senator!
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I would be in favor of strict enforcement of the “no transfer” rule to other D1 schools. There are hundreds of other college football programs to transfer to if an athlete wants to make a change because they are unhappy, or need another school nearer a different location for whatever medical or family reason. A don’t personally understand the driving need to play at TN versus UT-Chattanooga for instance, it isn’t like the pros don’t find players at the 1-AA level and why should we compete against players who were formally teammates again, and again. Screw guys like Trigga, Shaq, Mettenberg, etc. This isn’t life, or career ending imprisonment.
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Unlike, say, coaches.
I honestly don’t get how people who call themselves pro-free market conservatives can be so easy about one set of rules for student-athletes that nobody else in America has to comply with.
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Because they aren’t free market for everyone, they are free market for me. Rules for you.
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I reluctantly agree with you. Everything in life is about ME. See when you get old you finally figure it out but it’s too late. We are a country where everybody wants everybody else regulated but I want to be left the heck alone.
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Beautifully stated, 69. Nobody’s gonna be free until we each learn to let our neighbor alone. That includes his personal life and his money, too.
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Thanks. I’ll have another brownie.
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Actually Senator, I don’t agree that a “free market” should apply in all situations, so some exceptions would, and should, always be permitted. I am not against banning them from playing, just in a non-competing marketplace that does not limit their right to succeed. As you can imagine, I also support honoring non-competes in overlapping marketplaces.
Also, I have always supported enforcement of contracts for coaches and stated so on this forum. If a coach wants a 7 year contract for his own security, he should be bound to that school for those 7 years, unless the school doesn’t want him to coach and is willing to let him sit out with pay. It would make both parties think before signing a binding contract, currently the whole system of employee contracts in CFB is a joke because it seems to bind neither. I know we differed then, and still would today, but the ramifications have been damaging to CFB.
The above doesn’t mean either of us is right, and the other is wrong, just that we see the world differently. It is just an opinion, I feel the CFB world would be chaotic without restrictions on transfers, and feel allowing CFB coaches to walk away from their commitments has also caused chaos as the coaching carousel spins and impacts many innocent bystanders just so some greedy HC can massage his ego.
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Does the fact that a Bank of America employee can leave and take a job at SunTrust throw the banking world into chaos?
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Generally speaking, no. But if he were a Senior Executive with knowledge of their strategic plan, acquisition moves, promotional programs, or other inside knowledge that could help SunTrust succeed in thwarting Bank of America, you can bet he would have a non-compete in place to prevent him from that SunTrust job for a while.
I am not saying the guys that transfer can’t play for other teams, just take it to the another level.
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The position you’re describing applies far more to a coach than it does to a student-athlete, Mac.
Ask yourself this: if what you’re concerned about is such a big deal, why do professional leagues allow player trades?
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Strategically yes, but tactically imagine the continual swinging door of a group of RB’s or OL transferring in mass to pull a “Marlins like” one and done and leaving a team completely empty. I realize that could be considered extreme as an example but think about a group of CFB age athletes being enticed to win a ring by jumping ship in their Junior year from a team considered to have no shot at success in their last year. That, even in a limited case of 1-2 players is what I fear when you provide unrestricted transfers. It isn’t like many of the top guys are worried about their courses for graduation not transferring. In the pros, the entire team, or unit, is ever exposed to immediate switching. And GMs and HCs always know in advance what they may lose in a free agent option year.
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You sound like you’d be okay with student-athletes being employees under a contract, then.
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That is because I already consider them to be that, the scholly is the compensation agreement. And yes, I have always felt they needed to be paid for their time spent working for the good of the school, long before this became the cause du jour.
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Do you now… interesting.
The schools disagree with you, of course. If this really were a contract of employment, it’s the most unique one in existence. Non-negotiable terms, employees who can’t obtain workers’ compensation insurance, employers who enforce non-compete clauses in a totally arbitrary manner, uniform payment terms that aren’t related to the quality of skills the employee brings to the table… who in their right mind would advise someone to sign a deal that onerous? Oh, that’s right – if you retain the services of someone to advise you about what you’re getting into, you’re immediately prohibited from employment.
Sweet.
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Undoubtedly a circle jerk. Had the relationship began differently it may have evolved by now to something that makes sense. But I have no answer to how you differentiate revenue sports from those that cannot pay their way, especially with the intrusion of Title IV. Again, I think this all ends badly.
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Let’s face it Senator – it’s all about #SoybeanWind.
They need to change the transfer rule to make it more strict so that if/when they decided (forced) to offer a stipend or salary to football and basketball players this form of “free agency” will not be available. Instead it will be something that they will need to re-introduce after a period of time as a negotiating tool to keep salaries down.
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The transfer rule is not really a transfer rule as much as it is a punishment for transferring. The NCAA could punish the coaches for transferring by saying if a coach leaves a school voluntarily, but prior to the end of his contract, the coach must sit out one year. You know why this would never happen, because the coaches would sue the hell out of the NCAA and win. This rule more than any rule the NCAA has demonstrates the unfair practices of the NCAA and it’s member institutions toward the Athletic- Student.
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That makes me sick. How does that change help rectify the real issue? It does not it hurts players with real hardships.
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