FAU’s AD backs changes to transfer rules
White says he wants students to do ‘what they think is best.’
COCONUT CREEK — The NCAA has taken another step forward in giving more powers to student-athletes.
In a news release posted Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA Division I Council confirmed that the organization will adopt significant rule changes to the eligibility and transfer process beginning this season. The “notification-of-transfer” policy, which allowed a school to determine where a player could and could not transfer, has been revised to where a student-athlete can freely transfer wherever they want regardless of the new school’s conference or location.
That process will go into effect on Oct. 15, though Power 5 conferences will continue to meet in the coming weeks to discuss how the changes affect scholarship and financial aid.
“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.”
Previous NCAA transfer rules regulated that a student-athlete was required to tell their coaches and the university they planned on transferring. The school would then provide a list of schools, usually those in conference or within the region, to which the athlete could not transfer. A Florida Atlantic football player looking to transfer, for example, may not have been allowed to transfer to FIU or any team within Conference USA in past years.
While emphasizing that he wants to see student-athletes finish their careers in Boca Raton rather than transferring, FAU athletic director Brian White told The Post he supports the rule changes.
“I think it’s a good rule in the end and we’ll see how it plays out and affects college athletics,” White said at the school’s Winning in Paradise Tour. “Ideally, we want our coaches to develop student-athletes over time and to build programs, but (we also want) student-athletes to do what they think is best for their career. It doesn’t seem right to me to be able to tell them they can’t transfer.”
Several Power 5 programs have come under fire in recent months for restricting transfers even as student-athletes look to further their academic careers. Former Miami quarterback Evan Shirreffs, a business major set to graduate after three seasons, was initially barred from transferring to other ACC programs earlier this year before UM’s appeals committee later ruled he could transfer to Duke, North Carolina, or Virginia because of their successful sports MBA programs.
Shirreffs instead transferred to UNC-Charlotte, a rebuilding C-USA program that will play FAU on Nov. 24.
“You never want to hear that a student has to leave or go to another place to get a degree that they could get at FAU,” White said, “but that being said, if you’re doing the right things by student-athletes and prioritizing them, do what’s right by them. If that’s your mindset, them going on and pursuing a degree you may not have, be happy for them.”
Men’s basketball coach Dusty May called the rule changes “positive steps,” though he did acknowledge his perspective was different as he enters his first head coaching job. May was hired on March 22, less than a month after FAU appointed White to replace Pat Chun as the athletic director.
“If a player’s not happy where they are, change is a part of college basketball,” May said. “Being a first-time head coach, I’ve never experienced it. I would be disappointed that they were leaving, but I definitely wouldn’t discourage them from going to any other school. They put in the time, they’ve worked hard, and we want whatever is best for them.”