The Division I Transfer Working Group will spend the next several months seeking feedback on refined exceptions to the rule requiring all student-athletes to sit out a year of competition after transferring. The working group met Feb 12-13 in Indianapolis.
Some exceptions now under consideration include:
- Allow students who meet specific, high-achieving academic benchmarks to play immediately after the first time they transfer during their college experience.
- Allow prospective student-athletes who have signed a National Letter of Intent to transfer and play immediately if a head coach leaves the school of the student’s choice, as well as under other exceptions already in the rulebook. Because the Collegiate Commissioners Association manages the NLI, this idea would be referred to the CCA for consideration.
The working group is not considering — and never entertained — a model that would allow all student-athletes to transfer and compete immediately…
Additionally, the working group is not considering preserving the current rule or requiring all student-athletes to sit out a year without exception…
The working group will seek feedback on a high academic benchmark for student-athletes who wish to transfer and compete immediately. The exception would be available once during a student-athlete’s college experience. Student-athletes would not be able to compete at two schools the same academic year. Additionally, if a student transfers to a school that later is found to have recruited that student in violation of NCAA rules, that student would not be eligible to compete immediately at that school.
That, combined with the existing proposal eliminating the ability of coaches and schools to restrict aid to student-athletes after transferring, would represent a sea change in player transfer policy. I bet some of you aren’t thrilled by that. Then again, none of you are student-athletes.
The one thing I do wonder about is how allowing student-athletes to leave a program if the head coach is canned will affect an athletic director’s calculations in whether to pull the plug. Gee, isn’t life already hard enough for the likes of Greg McGarity?
Get The Picture 
I’m ok with bullet point number two. Not so much number one.
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What don’t you like about the first one?
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Potentially very arbitrary.
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I find nothing wrong with any of those proposals. This addresses a few problems in transferring that can be palatable to all.
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This is how I feel. I’m not in favor of completely unrestricted transfers but there’s some very reasonable exceptions that should be made. I think these two proposals work well.
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And so ends the college football experiment. I shudder to think about the impact this has on the team concept, the mutual commitment to each other, and the shared sacrifice of the many, towards one goal. Once you have individuals able to leave a place they have signed a contract with to be there for many years, in the public eye, able to leave whenever, or why-ever they should decide to do so, there is simply no way that college football could survive such a scenario.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Just kidding. That that perfectly describes the current state of affairs for the coaching staffs is a hilarious juxtaposition of the power imbalance and monetary imbalace.
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Wel played! You had me until I kept reading.
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probably my best post ever in here, and it’s buried in the traffic drop of the off-season. My finest work, almost a Senator level of snark, and no one here to see it.
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I was thinking, “Just like pro baseball” through your first paragraph. I quit watching the Braves when there was roster turnover every year. Growing up in the 60’s, the Bravos were usually pretty bad, but at least you knew who they were.
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I think this should be modified:
Assuming this would be for all sports:
Allow a player to transfer to any school he/she would like to transfer to if his/her coach has been terminated.
Allow a player to transfer to any school he/she would like to transfer to, with the exception of the school the coach goes to, should the coach leave for another job.
In other words, you cannot sign up Coach Saban and the Alabama Starting Offense and Defense as part of paying Nick Saban $20MM a year to coach at Oregon or another place where one booster could write that check.
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Point one would have made firing Mark Richt harder. The rule should be that the SA can’t follow a coach period. The rule might be easier to take if the SA was not allowed to transfer within the same conference.
The schools recruiting players from other schools will happen and I’m betting there will not be a rule against it that is enforceable. The best you can hope for is that it is limited to one transfer per player.
Even if they create an easier transfer rule they should still make the player apply to the NCAA for permission. Think how much dirt could be dug up about the schools from the players wanting to transfer.
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What school will be first to be investigated for deflating a student’s grades because they thought he was looking to transfer out of the football program?
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Nick Saban likes the way you think.
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The first school to do it? Or the first school to be investigated? 😉
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@ djrichiep: Saban and the guy at Auburn already have 7 assistants, to the assistant, to the gopher, to the clerk ,checking on that.
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Add the following:
SA is NOT allowed to transfer to a school that is on his current schools schedule for the remaining balance of his eligibility.
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…unless you have an ole miss situation.
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Free agents in the NFL play on one sideline this year and is likely to play against his old team the next year.
Nobody has a problem that we’re going to see Kevin Sherrer on Tennessee’s sideline next fall. He knows more than the 3rd string defensive end who wants to transfer for playing time.
What’s the difference with players?
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Georgia has 2-3 transfers per year? A slight change to the rule maybe adds a couple more.
There are 10000 or more d1 football players people are really concerned about a couple hundred of them changing schools?
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One of my best friends fromHS signed to play for Ga Tech because he wanted to play for Bobby Dodd. His first year Dodd retired and the guy got stuck playing 4 years for Bud Carson. If the HC leaves the players ought to have the right to transfer and play immediately.
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