Report: The NCAA could vote to allow all D-I transfers to be eligible immediately

The NCAA may be considering a major rule change to the current Division-I transfer rules that would allow transfers to be eligible immediately. According to a new report from 247Sports, the NCAA, citing an anonymous source, may vote on allowing all Division-I transfers to be eligible to play immediately. The current requirement that athletes would have to sit out an entire year would be replaced by a GPA standard.

The only potential restrictions are that student-athletes would be asked to meet a minimum GPA, in order to transfer immediately, and that any additional transfer would require the student-athletes to sit out a full year. The proposal, which is being solicited among members for feedback, is gaining increased traction in recent weeks, a source confirms.

-Andrew Slater, 247Sports

However on Wednesday, Brett McMurphy refuted this report:

The NCAA’s Transfer Working Group, will refer “a few areas of study” to the Committee on Academics, that will meet in October. Along with immediate eligibility, the committee will be asked to review the following ideas, per the NCAA:

The NCAA considering making changes to transfer rules is something that’s been happening for the last few years. Over the summer, the NCAA discussed changing the current transfer process with respect to the players’ school having a big say on the athlete transferring:

The NCAA is a giant nesting doll of subcommittees inside committees. A few weeks ago, a “working group” on transfers, connected to the powerful Division I Council, endorsed taking that power out of schools’ hands. Now the NCAA’s main vehicle for players to be heard, the DI Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, backs removing it, too.

The panel wants “to make the process as transparent and fluid as possible, so that instead of asking permission to contact, that they simply have a notification process saying that, ‘Hey, I am transferring,’ and then they have the ability to talk to schools at their liberty,” Brady Bramlett, a former Ole Miss pitcher who co-chairs the SAAC, says.

One of the more recent examples of this was in June, when Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder tried to block 35 schools from a player’s transfer list, for which Snyder took public heat for and subsequently relented.

But allowing D-I athletes to transfer and be eligible immediately, if the NCAA does vote on this, would completely change the transfer game. Now, instead of teams waiting a year to use its prized transfer recruit, that athlete can suit up and play immediately, if they make the GPA requirements. College basketball and football would obviously benefit impeccably from such a change.

The report goes on to say that granting immediate eligibility for transfers who make the minimum GPA requirement is “gaining traction amongst members,” and the legislation deadline is November 1.

We’ll see how it all plays out. At the very least, the NCAA even considering such a change shows the organization so set in its ways (usually, not in a positive way) is capable of making big changes.