D-I Council to discuss removing mandate to sit out season

Whether it is the start of free agency in college sports or simply the fair thing to finally do for the athletes, the NCAA is about to make a monumental change to its transfer rules.

The Division I Council meets Wednesday and Thursday, and the agenda includes voting on a proposal that would grant all college athletes the ability to transfer one time as undergraduates without having to then sit out a season of competition.

All indications are the proposal will pass. When it does, athletes in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and men’s ice hockey will for the first time be immediately eligible to play after switching schools without asking for special permission.

In all other NCAA sports, athletes were allowed to switch schools once before graduating and play immediately.

South Dakota State athletic director Justin Sell, a member of the council, said the lack of uniformity in the rules across sports had become difficult to justify. The NCAA has been examining its rules regarding athletes who transfer seemingly forever. But three and a half years ago, Sell was put in charge of a working group tasked with making substantive changes.

From that, the transfer portal was created, and athletes no longer had to ask for permission to be released from their scholarships if they wanted to switch schools and receive financial aid.

Sell’s group considered the idea of lifting the year-in-residence rule, which forced athletes to sit out the year after transferring, but never quite got there.

Instead, the waiver process was tweaked to allow athletes to receive immediate eligibility by showing a hardship of some sort that necessitated the transfer. That led to problems.

Some high-profile players such as quarterback Justin Fields, who transferred from Georgia to Ohio State in 2019, were granted waivers by the NCAA, creating an expectation that all players would be cleared to play right away.

When that didn’t happen, players, coaches and fans criticized the NCAA and claimed the waiver process was inconsistent and unfair. A working group led by Steinbrecher concluded that waivers were no solution.

“There was a broad segment of the membership that recognized that, ultimately, what we needed to get to is a legislative solution. Not a patchwork of waivers,” said Steinbrecher, who also is a member of the D-I Council.