New NCAA rule opens up recruitment process for transfer players

In an industry where college coaches are free to move about as they please and leave a job to run toward the highest bidder, NCAA regulations have always given the coaches power to dictate the schools to which their players could transfer.

As of October 15th, that practice comes to an end.

The new rule will change the process for athletes looking to transfer to another school. Instead of informing their current school and requesting permission to contact potential transfer options, which had been the rule in the past, players will not have the opportunity to communicate with any school that they like.

This could have been applied to the Kentucky Wildcats’ with Reid Travis, who is a graduate transfer but will had to notify his school of his transfer and then get a release.

The new transfer procedure will require schools to enter a players name into a transfer database within two days of being informed of his or her desire to transfer. At that point, any school may access that database and begin recruiting the available athletes.

“This creates a safe place for student-athletes to have a conversation with their coaches and makes the whole process more transparent,” said Nicholas Clark, a recent graduate of and former football player at Coastal Carolina who represents the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on the Council. “This will clean the process up and give more influence and flexibility to the student-athlete.”

This is strong step in simplifying the transfer process and focusing policy more on the athlete than the institutional members. Many believe this change is one of several that may be approved in coming years, each of which will make it easier to change schools and retain eligibility.

“The membership showed today that it supports this significant change in transfer rules,” said Justin Sell, chair of the Division I Transfer Working Group and athletics director at South Dakota State. “I’m proud of the effort the Transfer Working Group put forth to make this happen for student-athletes, coaches and schools.”

While this is a big deal, keep in mind that conferences have the ability to create rules that are more strict than the NCAA regulation and could further limit student transfer options. It will be interesting to see which conferences choose to impose stricter rules and how that impact recruiting.