The NCAA’s transformation committee on Thursday announced recommendations that would provide athletes with windows to enter the transfer portal each year, as well as changes to the current infractions process designed to result in faster outcomes.
The proposed transfer recommendations are “intended to stabilize the transfer environment,” according to the NCAA’s news release, and would require “additional accountability” for schools that receive transfer students. The NCAA did not immediately provide information as to what the specific transfer windows would be or how it would hold schools accountable on the receiving end.
Bless their hearts. Of course they didn’t. No reason to give those pesky antitrust attorneys a head start. Five will get you ten the NCAA hasn’t exactly figured that out yet, either.
Get The Picture 
The committee has adjourned until they relocate to another luxury resort to resume deliberations.
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ESPN published that announcement as breaking news last night. I eagerly clicked on it only to find out that there is no concrete proposal. Silly me! Why did I expect the NCAA to come out with good rules?
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I guess I don’t understand why putting limits on when players can transfer would violate anti-trust laws. Every college in America has limits on when you can enroll and begin classes for upcoming semesters. No student (athlete or not) can simply transfer mid-semester from UGA to Bama and be in class within the week if those classes have already started. You have to wait till the next semester if you miss the deadline.
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I could be wrong, but I don’t believe the idea is for players to transfer mid season and play for two teams in the same season. But as a regular student, you can decide to transfer to another school at anytime, and go ahead and apply/be accepted for the next semester or what have you. But with these windows, they’re saying that you ONLY have the ability to move forward with that decision at certain times of the year. It’s still a restriction that doesn’t apply to regular students. The NFL can do it because they’ve collectively bargained with a union that has agreed to the windows. If the schools do it, they would be imposing it unilaterally, which is gonna get hammered in court.
Bluto has said it many times, and as much as a lot of us hate the idea, the best way to solve a lot of these problems is gonna be for the schools to declare the athletes to be employees and allow them to unionize. Then whatever agreements are made on restrictions and so forth, there’s no legal concerns.
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Ahh ok I see what you are saying about transferring.
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Who do the athletes bargain with? The schools? The conferences? The NCAA?
That’s been my question about unionization of college athletes. Many state universities can’t by law collectively bargain with employees. The NCAA is going to require some type of antitrust protection as part of any effort to unionize D1 athletes (of which there are 350 schools who participate in D1 for some level of sports). So, that leaves the conferences. What happens when a work stoppage happens at a particular conference either because of a lockout or a strike?
There are a lot of unintended consequences associated with unionization. I wouldn’t jump directly to that at this point.
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The first domino is the recognition of athletes (Football or Men’s Basketball) as employees. To your point, I think the definition of their employer will be the next domino. Based on the who is the employer answer will dictate the follow on activities.
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I’ve said from the beginning of all this employee talk that they all work for the television networks and that’s who should be paying them if it comes to that.
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If that’s the case, prepare for a college football draft because that would be priceless content for the networks.
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There’s no way any recognition is only going to be carved out for those sports IMHO. It will be for all sports or none.
If you take the NFL model, the athlete is employed and compensated by the school. The conference is likely management’s bargaining unit because that’s where the TV money flows through. This is where it gets dicey. How does talent get distributed from that point? The way it does today or with some other method to be determined by CBA?
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After having some time to digest what you said Reverend, I’d hope that any crafted guardrail rules would only there to prevent a student athlete from playing in an upcoming Fall semester if he/she attempted to do the transfer after the rule guardrail deadline, not actually preventing them for transferring. I just assume those guardrails wouldn’t prevent the student from actually transferring into the other school. For example, if the player/portal transfer window closes in January, anyone (including ALL students) would not be eligible to play that following Fall semester in any sports. However, those players would still be available to enroll into Summer and Fall semesters for classes.
The above is what I was originally talking about. How could that be anti-trust if it’s school wide and applicable for all students and not just for athletes??
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Mr. Biggen ask the question I would like the answer. How can setting a window or limits when a player may transfer, possibly be an antitrust issue?
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OK. I should have waited for Reverend Whitewall’s comment.
I have not heard of a player transferring in the middle of a season to play for another team during that same season. Maybe I am making too much out of this, or I am not making enough out of this. In other words, I give
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one reason that a college putting limits on when a student can enroll is that is a college’s individual choice. The Sherman Antitrust Act does not prevent folks in a market from making unilateral decisions that effect the market. The Act prohibits actors in a market entering into agreements with each other that restrains trade.
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“Five will get you ten the NCAA hasn’t exactly figured that out yet, either.”
Maybe that’s not bad – I would be fine if they never did anything again, but if they are hell bent on doing something, please think through it and take your time and try to get it right. Just don’t make a press release as a way of trying to say “Hey! Look at us! We’re still relevant!”
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Couldn’t they just send them to the conferences as general national guidelines and tell them all to adopt these or be in danger of receiving a very strongly worded email!
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one reason that a college putting limits on when a student can enroll is that is a college’s individual choice. The Sherman Antitrust Act does not prevent folks in a market from making unilateral decisions that effect the market. The Act prohibits actors in a market entering into agreements with each other that restrains trade.
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The SEC has specific rules related to transfer eligibility. I guess that’s not a restraint of trade because there are other conferences.
The availability windows for entering the portal aren’t a restraint on trade. It’s not like the NCAA has said you can’t transfer. I don’t get how this is unreasonable where it could be challenged. No one has challenged the eligibility rules (yet). All of the challenges (and the scope of Alston) only covers compensation and NIL.
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The question i attempted to answer was whether an individual school is violating Antitrust laws by limiting a time period for admission.
If the school agrees with others to all have the same time frame for transfers that would be an agreement in restraint of trade because it restrains when players may move.
The next step in Antitrust analysis is where that agreement violates the Rule of Reason. If the restraint is not unreasonable to the players but promotes competition in the market the school is in then the agreement in restraint does not violate the Sherman Act.
My nonexpert opinion is that what you are describing would be held to be a reasonable restraint and therefore not illegal.
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