NCAA passes 1 "free" transfer rule
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31258180/ncaa-allow-tr…
"The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to change the long-standing rule that has often deterred players in high-profile sports from switching schools, two people with knowledge of the council's decision told The Associated Press."
Basically, every college kid can now transfer 1 time without sitting out a year. So the Covid free agent system that we have seen over the last year is becoming a permanent thing.
The Harbaugh Rule.™️
And he will get no credit for it as per usual. The guy fights for player rights constantly.
Warde should be doing two things, speak to the press on this effort and commanding the NCAA for this rule that JIM proposed and UM has supported, once again demonstrating we're here for students first. Second, he should be pressing the B1G to do the same. Jim Harbaugh deserves lots of credit on this and the school not shouting it from the rooftops is a hugely missed opportunity from a recruiting standpoint in my opinion.
This is basically like free agency. Not that it hasn’t been this way for a few years but it’ll really go crazy now.
Indeed. I wonder if coaches will consider “possibility of transferring” when recruiting. Perhaps there should be a greater emphasis on in-state recruiting, as that would at least eliminate the “home sickness” issue.
I think regional recruiting may become even more important going forward. I really think this will affect football more due to the fact that kids have to stay at least 3 years before even having a shot at the nfl. In basketball you can play one year somewhere and then you have at least the g league if not the nba as an option. As you said home sickness will come into play more with kids from farther away.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:59 PM ^
There isn’t enough talent in MI to win
Ehh...kids were transferring at high rates when they had to sit out a year. Those programs that are slow to adjust will get left behind.
It happens a lot with high rated QBs, but I think it will happen even more now. If a top QB is not starting by year 2, expect a transfer. In some ways, it may be better to do this for some teams. Pick up a high 4* QB with 2 years in a system instead of rolling the dice on a 4* and start them as a Freshman or Sophomore.
If a top QB is not starting by year 2, expect a transfer.
Oh lordy, I'm already worried for our future QB room.
Well, we're going to have to get used to the fact that for every good QB you bring in as a freshman, there's 1 QB going out the door via transfer.
I feel this is just going to wreck non-elite/non-P5 schools.
Player X has a breakout season at UTEP, then transfers to large school meeting his position for a year.
It goes both ways. You'll get talented P5 players who get buried on the depth chart and transfer to G5 schools to get more playing time. It has been happening already.
It's been "Musical Chairs" for several years now. It will now just have a lot more participants and a lot more chairs.
Time will ultimately tell. But my gut is that this will actually "level" the playing field a slight bit, as opposed to increasing the gap further.
This raises an interesting point. Would these players that are buried on the depth charts on good P5 teams rather transfer to a bad P5 school or a good G5 school? In other words, could a team like Rutgers just take a couple of HS recruits every year and then double-down on picking people up in the transfer portal? Could be an interesting strategy.
Good point. Probably better for a G5 program to get 2 decent backups from transfers than lose 1 good player who moves up. Also not so sure quite as many will leave as people think. You can definitely make it in the pros from a G5 school. I think you'd be wrong to be a bit of a star in G5 to get into a competition where you might only be the backup. You'd probably want a near certainty at a starting job.
And then the five star who gets buried on the depth chart at OSU transfers to UTEP, lights up the scoreboard and becomes the face of the program.
Definitely understand your point but I think the smaller schools stand to benefit from this as well. It’ll go both ways.
Wondering if Michigan or other programs will hire a a Cordinator to strictly focus on the portal? If a kid signs with say Alabama over Michigan, can Michigan stay in contact with the kid while he has enrolled at Alabama in case Alabama doesn’t play the kid to encourage the kid to consider a transfer...
As it should be.
Now if they'd just pass a 1 Free Burrito rule I'd go see if I have any eligibility left. We always need DTs, right?
can we get 1 free cream cheese first?
Maybe now we can get some planet sized DTs for the fall, and a couple of LBs.
College football as we know it h as ended. If the NFL wants a minor league, it should finance one. Colleges have no obligation to provide free training to players who are not really interested in an education and just want to play football. Scholarships should be given to athletes who also want an education.
Plenty of kids are playing right now on Saturdays at the FCS level who are more so doing what you’re talking about. Yet, nobody pays much attention to it! People want to see talented players who have a chance to play at the next level. It’s the reason Michigan Stadium seats 100k+, while an FCS school may have a capacity of 5k. Furthermore, in order to play you have to be in good academic standing. Even if you transfer, it’s not like you can skip class and still play. As long as a student has good academic status, he should be allowed to play anywhere! This notion of “free agency” has always been an overreaction in my mind. The adults(assistants, coordinators & head coaches) in the room have been switching teams for decades and the game has moved on just fine. The players being mobile shouldn’t be a bridge too far for you.
This represents a **slight** reduction in NCAA illogic by applying the same transfer rule to all athletes in all sports. I doubt it represents any type of institutional momentum toward rational behavior. It is a good and worthy improvement and I applaud the NCAA with one hand.
Play me, Coach... or else!!
April 14th, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
It creates a new interesting recruiting challenge . . . you now have to recruit some guys that won't have this attitude. 3-stars aren't all bad anymore.
This is the first thing I though of as well. Yet it's probably going on now anyway.
I for one just hope the student athletes still have a chance to establish residency at their new schools and also sit down with an academic advisor to formulate their plan of study. That way, they can fully take advantage of the opportunity for free schooling and be on a clear and concise path to career readiness that doesn't hinge on being a professional athlete.
*Ducks*
/S
*Ducks again*
The ability to transfer freely, combined with ability to pay players for their likeness will turn college sports into an open labor market. Players will likely go to the highest bidder. That’s probably a good outcome for the players on balance, but paying young people that much money is going to create some odd situations.
For example star players earning many times more than backups. Star players earning more than some assistant coaches. And possibly excessive drug use for those that enjoy the party lifestyle on campus. Players may look out for their own self interest more than loyalty to the team or university, and that’s fine.
Excessive drug use? Because . . . kids can transfer without sitting a year?
Not what I said.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
pay players for their likeness
People are going to see that the number of players that get paid anything of any real significance is going to be shockingly small.
Now can they pass NIL so student athletes can make money from there likeness
This will be a disaster. I would argue that it pretty much already is.
If you think that high school recruiting is dirty, imagine what recruiting of superstars who slip under the radar in high school and blow up at places like Bowling Green or Tulsa will be like.
Another in a long line of terrible ideas that continues to rot college sports.
You do realize this has been going on for decades in non-revenue sports, right?
April 14th, 2021 at 10:24 PM ^
Yeah, but Vegas doesn't care about those.
Does this mean that Ohio State will need to give their players pay raises to keep them from transferring? If we're going to compare this to free agency, isn't an increase in pay one reason that players choose to sign with other teams? In addition to using playing time as a lure, schools can now offer an increase in benefits. The portal is only going to get crazier.
Actually a really good point on this. This absolutely expands the bagman's tentacles literally onto every college football roster.
How exactly do they plan to keep a school like Tennessee from working their back channels to provide a lucrative offer to Junior Colston to transfer in as he's mostly serving as a back up during his freshman year? You're literally going to see schools recruit players off of current NCAA rosters.
Now that this is a formalized and overarching policy, the cheaters will figure out a way to exploit it because the NCAA is completely inept and uninterested in policing their own rules.
Some will strongly disagree, but Michigan just needs to covertly grab the bag and start playing the real game. There's no honor in being the NCAA's last boy scout. That organization is an absolute joke and should be treated as such.
I think this is definitely a good rule, since player empowerment is really something that's been a long time coming for the NCAA. Especially given many immediate transfers are allowed through a black box waiver system, just making a blanket freebie is a positive thing in my book. Harbaugh was ahead of the curve in pushing it, and I'm glad he did.
That being said, this feels like it's a negative for a school that is notoriously strict on transferring, where credits often don't transfer coming in, especially for undergrads which this rule is meant for. While basketball has gotten some great players (Chaundee and Charles Matthews jump to mind as strong non-grad additions), football doesn't pull in too many transfer guys (Shea, Bowman and Edward Warinner are the only non-grad guys who jump to mind recently).
Maybe we'll see a shift in transfer portal approach moving forward with the installation of this new rule, but it feels like it will hurt Michigan's program more than help it based on recent record.
Took them long enough. If coaches can ditch their players in the middle of the night and leave sticky notes in their lockers about it, then players should be able to move between programs without penalty as well.
I’d be okay with having to sit out if you’re transferring for the second time or you have severe academic issues that you need to address, but otherwise you should be getting one free pass.
The difference in the number of unsatisfied players entering the portal versus coaches leaving for a better paying job is huge. The "free agency" approach is Pandora's Box. Does every kid really think he has the talent to play in the NFL? Can no one handle adversity anymore? Like Putin said, it's becoming, "Play me, or else!"
I would think this rule won't help O Saggy State U. I think they'd give more than receive with players able to transfer and play elsewhere. For this cause, I welcome it.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:09 PM ^
For comic purposes, and because it sounds like something the NCAA would accidentally do, we need to have a situation where Vision Quest finally occurs at no cost to eligibility, but due to injury, a player takes so long to exhaust their eligibility that the original school drops their sport of choice in the interim. That would be the day when we should all pack it in for we could never top that sort of insanity.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:56 PM ^
The recruiting rankings industry is going to have to change with the times. When evaluating a school's recruiting class, incoming transfers must be part of the equation now.
It is no longer just background noise, but a fundamental part of recruiting.
Hard to evaluate though. Majority of transfers will be guys riding pine. I guess you could ding a 5star who didn't get on the field when it looks like they should have, but how do you change a player's rating after HS if they haven't played since then?
There are currently like 3500 kids in the portal - less than 7 have found a new school.
This isn’t some paradigm shift that’s going to change the landscape of college football.
Much
I think it's good for players. If I were a player, I'd want the freedom to move if I wanted.
For upper-tier schools, maybe it is sort of a wash. They will maybe lose more players who aren't playing enough, but maybe gain more players who are performing well at lower-tier schools.
Schools will have to spend more resources on managing transfers.