Maybe this will slow down the surge of transfers across all sports in college athletics in the coming years.
While the transfer portal continues to be one of the most popular tools players use to find more playing time, a better fit and greater opportunities to win and cash in on name, image and likeness deals, the NCAA recently tweaked its rules in a way that might limit some of the movement.
The NCAA’s Division I council this week voted unanimously to update guidelines for the waiver process for undergraduate student-athletes who are transferring for a second time.
In a release announcing the vote, it stated that the Council agreed that athletics reasons such as lack of playing time and position presence, along with academic preferences should not warrant waiver relief.
According to an NCAA news release announcing the vote, each waiver request will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and athletes transferring for a second time must meet one of the following criteria to be granted a waiver to compete immediately:
• A demonstrated physical injury or illness or mental health condition that necessitated the student’s transfer (supporting documentation, care plans and proximity of the student’s support system will be considered)
OR
• Exigent circumstances that clearly necessitate a student-athlete’s immediate departure from the previous school (e.g., physical assault or abuse, sexual assault) unrelated to the student-athlete’s athletics participation.
The release notes that all other guidelines currently used or used in the past will no longer be considered for waiver re-quests beginning with the 2023-24 school year.
Any situations that fall outside of the guidelines above will be turned over to the Transfer Advisory Group for further review, again on a case-by-case basis.
Student-athletes who meet the requirements for what’s known as “a limited transfer exception,” which is tied to a sport being discontinued or non-scholarship athletes, also will now be al-lowed to enter the transfer portal at any time rather than being required to use their respective sport’s transfer window.
The rise of NIL and the recent one-time waiver transfer oppor-tunity granted to all college athletes created quite an explosion of players changing schools for the very reasons outlined above.
In Division 1 men’s basketball and football alone, the transfer portal numbers have skyrocketed higher and higher each year since its inception in 2018.
According to a December 2022 report from ESPN.com, more than 1,600 college football players entered the portal since the end of the 2022 season. Reports from last July noted that the number of college basketball players on the move was nearly as high.
The University of Kansas certainly has benefited from players coming in but the Jayhawks also have seen several players leave Lawrence to enter the portal, as well.
While the recent rule changes will not limit the initial movers, it could trim down the total number by preventing athletes from being free to play at a second new school right away begin-ning next season.
AP File Photo
