NCAA to study player transfer exemptions
The NCAA’s Division I Transfer Working Group met this week in Indianapolis and will spend the next few months seeking feedback on specific exceptions to the rule requiring all student-athletes to sit out a year after transferring.
According to the NCAA website, the exceptions under consideration include allowing student-athletes who meet specific, high-achieving academic benchmarks to play immediately after the first time they transfer during their college experience.
Also under consideration is allowing a prospective student-athlete who has signed a national letter of intent to transfer and play immediately if the head coach leaves the school of the student’s choice.
The NCAA working group, according to its website, is “not considering — and never entertained — a model that would allow all student-athletes to transfer and compete immediately.” Member schools noted that such a change would not lead to more athletes achieving academic success and graduating.
Additionally, the working group is not considering preserving the existing rule of requiring all athletes to sit out a year without exception.
“Membership input is vital in this process as we try to develop the best recommendation possible,” working group chair Justin Sell, the South Dakota State athletic director, said on the NCAA website. “We will refine the concepts based on the feedback we receive, and we will ultimately make our decisions based on our values and goals as an organization and the guideposts set for us last year by the Division I Board of Directors.”
The NCAA working group is aiming for a Division I Council vote on its final proposal in June, so it could be considered as a package with the notification-of-transfer legislation already in the Division I legislative cycle.
Georgia facility named
Georgia’s indoor football facility is being named in honor of former Bulldogs player Billy Payne and his father, the late Porter Payne.
The official name will be the William Porter Payne and Porter Otis Payne Indoor Athletic Facility. The naming opportunity is the result of gifts totaling $10 million secured from friends of Billy and Porter Payne.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423757-6524.