NCAA tightens transfer rules

With the roll out of the NCAA transfer portal, many believed it was the beginning of free agency for college athletes.

On one hand, there are really no restrictions on how non-athlete college students transfer, so why should the athletes be punished?

On the other hand, actual free agency would create mass chaos in college athletics.

The transfer portal was never anything close to free agency. But in attempt to get rid of that perception, the NCAA has tightened the reins on college athletes that request waivers to gain immediate eligibility after transferring.

Currently, these waivers are considered by a committee on a case-by-case basis. In order for a request to be granted for immediate eligibility, a student-athlete must provide “documented mitigating circumstances outside of the student-athlete’s control and directly impacts the health, safety or well-being of the student-athlete.”

Some athletes have taken advantage of the ambiguous nature of “mitigating circumstances” and have received some questionably favorable decisions.

But the NCAA has now made an adjustment the language to be more limiting.

The new language states that a player must have “documented extenuating, extraordinary and mitigating circumstances outside of the student-athlete’s control that directly impacts the health, safety or well-being of the student-athlete.”

So, in theory, the words extenuating and extraordinary are supposed to make all the difference in determining who is and who is not deserving of an eligibility waiver.

Another change includes the circumstances in which a student leaving an institution by the athletic program’s request must file for immediate eligibility.

In the past, if a student-athlete suffered “egregious behavior by a staff member or student at the previous institution,” then they could play immediately at a new school as long as the previous school did not file a petition objecting to the waiver.

Now, students must have signed documentation from the previous institution stating that the student-athlete no longer has the opportunity to represent that previous institution. So if the school is unwilling to provide such documentation, then the athlete will have to sit out for a year even if the previous institution has pulled the student’s scholarship.

There has also been a caregiving clause that has allowed student-athletes to play closer (within 100 miles) of their home if they have to help care for a loved one. The new guidelines require the students to provide paperwork both from the previous institutions and the new one outlining “a treatment plan detailing the student-athlete’s caregiving responsibilities.”

The only major Kentucky transfer this may impact is Xavier Peters. Since he grew up more than 100 miles from Lexington, he will now be charged with providing “documented extenuating, extraordinary and mitigating circumstances outside of the student-athlete’s control that directly impacts the health, safety or well-being of the student-athlete.”

Peters’ rationale concerns his young son and his desire to be near him. It seems clear that being a father figure in a young man’s life is certainly extenuating and extraordinary, and the Kentucky Football coaching staff is confident that Peters will be eligible this fall.

But will the new NCAA guidelines be so strict that Peters may have to sit out for a year?