“Kids are going to go where they want to play.”

Here’s Dennis Dodd’s summary of the proposed changes to the NCAA’s existing transfer rules:

• The transfer cannot have faced a disciplinary suspension. Think of any player suspended for a drug positive. Clemson tight end Braden Galloway couldn’t have transferred and been eligible right away after testing positive in late 2018 for ostarine, classified by the Word Anti-Doping Agent as an S1 Anabolic Agent.
• The transfer has to maintain academic progress. That progress toward a degree requirement has been around for 17 years. The “40-60-80″rules states that, prior to a third year of college enrollment, an athlete must have completed 40 percent of credit hours required toward a degree. That number goes to 60 percent before the fourth year and 80 percent before the fifth year. (Athletes must declare a major by their second year. The NCAA allows athletes five years to complete four years of eligibility.)
• The transfer has to leave school academically eligible. That’s why former West Virginia safety Kenny Robinson couldn’t find a home in Division I after being expelled in 2018. Robinson ended up in the XFL.
• The transfer must get a release from their departing school. This is a rule that was once in place for every college athlete, but following the creation of the transfer portal in 2018, had been removed for the five aforementioned revenue sports.  [Emphasis added.]
• Specific intraconference transfer rules can still apply.

If you’re a little skeptical about that whole “must get a release from their departing school” thing, Dodd is here to reassure you it’s no big deal.

Critics have seized upon the point regarding transfers needing a “release” from their departing school. Athletes will be allowed to transfer, but if they don’t get that release, they’ll have to sit out a year. There is a general feeling that, by the time a player jumps through the first three hoops, the release by a school will be a formality. If not, the coach/school will be Twitter shamed into granting a release. By then, why fight it when the downside is protracted public battle damages a program’s brand?

Gotta love using release in air quotes there.  Funny how he doesn’t mention a single school whose brand was damaged by a coach being a dick over a kid’s attempt to transfer.

In other words, I’ll believe the air quotes when I see them.

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