The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to allow athletes in the association’s biggest sports to change schools once during their undergraduate careers without having to sit out a season, a person familiar with the outcome told USA TODAY Sports.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the vote won’t be finalized until the council adjourns for two days of meetings on Thursday.
The long-awaited move would unify transfer rules for Bowl Subdivision football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball — as well as baseball and men’s hockey — with those for other Division I sports.
The result of Wednesday’s vote was first reported by The Athletic.
The Council is a policy-making group composed primarily of school and conference athletics administrators. Its actions are subject to review by the Division I Board of Trustees, primarily composed of school presidents and chancellors. The next board meeting is scheduled for April 28, but its intervention on this issue is unlikely.
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NCAA President Mark Emmert supported the change and in a virtual press conference before the recent men’s basketball Final Four, he said, “Students should have that ability to transfer, at least one times, during their career. I understand the complexity that this creates for coaches, and I understand that it creates uncertainty in roster management and all that. But I think it’s high time to offer this flexibility to students.
In anticipation of the rule change, hundreds of basketball players have recently declared their interest or intent to transfer schools by entering their names into the NCAA transfer portal.
Creating a uniform transfer policy for all Division I athletes has been a topic of conversation and study by various NCAA committees for years. And the association’s member schools have taken a number of minor steps in this area. For example, students in any sport who complete their undergraduate studies before using their four seasons of athletic eligibility were allowed to transfer and play immediately. The membership also established a waiver process allowing transfers in any sport under certain circumstances and subject to approval by NCAA central office staff or an appeals committee.
Additionally, starting in October 2018, members created the Transfer Portal, which makes it easier for athletes to obtain permission from their current school to contact other schools and avoid further bureaucratic questions arising. they want to make a change.
But as the basic absence rules remained in effect for athletes in football and basketball – the most revenue-generating sports – those rules had become a target for athletes’ rights advocates, some federal lawmakers and the Ministry of Justice.
Jon Steinbrecher is the longtime commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, a current member of the Council, and chaired the latest iteration of a Division I task force on transfers. Before Wednesday’s meeting, he recalled: “In 2015, I raised this issue during my State of the Conference address at our football media day.
“I said it was time for us to modernize our transfer rules. We are at a point where we either need to justify why we are segmenting (football, basketball, baseball and men’s hockey) or adopt a unified rule. Others said the same thing. And here we are, and we’ve had starts and stops along the way. »
Most recently, the changes approved Wednesday were expected to be approved in January, but just before that vote was scheduled, Makan Delrahim, then head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, sent a letter to Emmert expressing serious concerns about the direction of the association about transfer rules and the ability of athletes to make money from the use of their names, images and likenesses.
In his comments before the men’s Final Four, Emmert said NCAA officials would have discussions with the Justice Department.
