College leaders mulling several significant changes to NCAA transfer policy
College leaders are seriously considering several significant changes to the NCAA transfer policy, including abolishing the year-in-residency penalty, increasing transfer academic eligibility requirements and levying financial penalties on schools that don’t meet academic benchmarks.
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors and Division I Council outlined the potential legislative proposals in a two-page document obtained by Yahoo Sports.
An advisory panel of the Division I Council is in the midst of discussing “legislative alternatives” to both the waiver process and the year-in-residency rule, which requires an athlete transferring for a second time or more to sit a year at his or her new school unless the NCAA grants the athlete a waiver.
The panel is also considering changes geared toward mitigating “the potential impact transfer behavior may have on graduation rates over time,” according to the document. The panel has suggested adjusting the eligibility requirement, such as the number of credits needed for athletes to be eligible at their next school (from six hours to nine).
More discussion is expected at the NCAA convention next month in Phoenix, and recommendation will be considered for approval in April, according to the letter.
Other possible legislative and policy alternatives that might be considered individually or as a package include:
(1) Requiring schools to “develop a path” to graduation for transfers; conducting an audit of academic performance on transfers; and providing graduate rates to each of their athletes, including those considering a transfer to the school.
(2) Developing a new academic metric to measure a school’s graduation rate for transfer athletes, such as an “NCAA Division I Academic Progress Rate” that incentivizes retention.
(3) Amending the current revenue distribution model to require schools to meet academic benchmarks tied to the new formula. Funds could be forfeited for failing to meet the benchmarks. This would serve as an “incentive for schools to support the academic progress of all its student-athletes, including transfers,” the document notes.
The panel agreed that certain existing transfer rules should remain, including transferring and playing immediately within the same sport season.
These possible changes are part of a broad reexamination of the transfer policy, the latest NCAA rule that the courts are targeting.
The policy is at the center of a lawsuit brought by seven state attorneys general against the NCAA. During a hearing Dec. 13 in West Virginia, a judge ruled against the NCAA, granting plaintiffs a 14-day restraining order that lifted the association’s transfer rules and made it possible for athletes who are transferring a second time or more to play immediately without waivers. That order was extended through this academic year.
The NCAA made a significant clarification to that rule this week, deeming that multi-time football transfers who enter the fall portal window can play at their new schools immediately next fall without a waiver.
Over the past two weeks, multiple college leaders have expressed support for overhauling the transfer policy, including eliminating the waiver process.