Changes Coming to Transfer Rules?

[IrishLax]

If done right, this is a good thing for student-athletes. The reason the "one year sit out" thing exists is to stop chaos, rampant transfers from young players, and "poaching" by blue blood programs.

Speaking strictly about football for a second, the rules need to be as follows for this to work --
1. Transfers allowed during a specific period (with OVs allowed)... I'd say ideally before NSD, but that's hard to work with the logistics of the season and bowl games. So maybe you have a window from January 1 to January 15, and then a longer one over the summer. Or you push back the February NSD into March.
2. A cap on the number of transfers schools can take in a year... I'd cap it at 5 to start, and maybe that's high. You don't want this to become JUCO recruiting on steroids.
3. A requirement that transfers carry a 3.0 GPA, be in good academic standing, and have no arrests. You don't want flunkies dodging the fact that they're going to get kicked out of school -> withdraw from classes and transfer somewhere. You also don't want people getting a "do over" for crimes... where if their school punishes them for beating a woman or something, they can just say "screw you" and transfer to Oklahoma and play immediately.

The big issue will be policing tampering and bag men. This will be virtually impossible. You will see players like Josh Allen get hounded by bag men from the LSU's of the world and plucked from Wyoming... there will be massive tampering behind the scenes, even if not from coaches.

 

[Luckylucci]

I'm very skeptical that the NCAA will do this right, and because of that, I think this could be very bad for ND football

 

[zelezo vlk]

I'm very skeptical that the NCAA will do this right, and because of that, I think this could be very bad for ND football

The NCAA has reviewed the facts and decided that in all fairness, your post is most heinous. ND will vacate all wins from the 60s and 25 points will be deducted from Gryffindor.

 

[T-Boone]

I hate it.
Why wouldn't Julian Love or Te'von Coney etc just go move to Alabama or Clemson or whoever else looks most likely to win a championship?

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I spoke w/ an NCAA official this week who was “95% certain” transfers will soon be allowed to play immediately in basketball & football. Could be a one-time freebie, plus grad transfer option. So in theory, a student-athlete could play for three different schools w/o sitting out.</p>— Matt Schick (@ESPN_Schick) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPN_Schick/status/953671983866277888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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If done right, this is a good thing for student-athletes. The reason the "one year sit out" thing exists is to stop chaos, rampant transfers from young players, and "poaching" by blue blood programs.

Speaking strictly about football for a second, the rules need to be as follows for this to work --
1. Transfers allowed during a specific period (with OVs allowed)... I'd say ideally before NSD, but that's hard to work with the logistics of the season and bowl games. So maybe you have a window from January 1 to January 15, and then a longer one over the summer. Or you push back the February NSD into March.
2. A cap on the number of transfers schools can take in a year... I'd cap it at 5 to start, and maybe that's high. You don't want this to become JUCO recruiting on steroids.
3. A requirement that transfers carry a 3.0 GPA, be in good academic standing, and have no arrests. You don't want flunkies dodging the fact that they're going to get kicked out of school -> withdraw from classes and transfer somewhere. You also don't want people getting a "do over" for crimes... where if their school punishes them for beating a woman or something, they can just say "screw you" and transfer to Oklahoma and play immediately.

The big issue will be policing tampering and bag men. This will be virtually impossible. You will see players like Josh Allen get hounded by bag men from the LSU's of the world and plucked from Wyoming... there will be massive tampering behind the scenes, even if not from coaches.

The most egregious issue, from my POV, is that schools currently have unfettered discretion in choosing to release or not release kids from their scholarships.

 

[Riddickulous]

This could mean the smaller schools turning into the minor leagues for the Power 5.

 

[Luckylucci]

I hate it.
Why wouldn't Julian Love or Te'von Coney etc just go move to Alabama or Clemson or whoever else looks most likely to win a championship?

I'm not worried about that, as a vast majority of our players value the education, that's why they are here in the first place. What I'm worried about, is this is yet another move towards a "semi" pro landscape for college football, that ND won't be a part of. But a majority of the schools we compete against, or measure ourselves against, will certainly take advantage of. In fact, UM is already trying to with Shea Patterson. It's essentially free agency for college athletics.

 

[notredomer23]

This could mean the smaller schools turning into the minor leagues for the Power 5.

My thought exactly. Any freshman standout at a MAC level school is gonna transfer now.

 

[IrishLax]

The most egregious issue, from my POV, is that schools currently have unfettered discretion in choosing to release or not release kids from their scholarships.

I'm assuming that would change with this rule change, and that conferences would instate their own transfer rules (i.e. SEC school to another SEC school means they can't play for a year) or something like that.

This could mean the smaller schools turning into the minor leagues for the Power 5.

Yes, this is the big issue more than anything. If you can't police tampering, the "top" Group of 5 schools will get absolutely raided for their players on a yearly basis. Josh Allen would've left Wyoming two years ago. Carson Wentz same thing. And so on and so forth. Basically all NFL talent will get "recruited" by the next tier of schools. Which means Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and others that won't have the strict transfer rules of ND will continue to pull away from the pack and Notre Dame will be in the next tier.

You know what stops all of this? Having players sign contracts for $$. That's the next natural step if they open up "free agency" as they're describing.

 

[IrishLax]

Another thing I'll say... I think it'd make more sense to allow free transfers after completing 2 years somewhere than "anything goes"... the big issues are going to come from productive freshmen bailing from their Sun Belt school when Ole Miss offers them $100k + malcontent freshman who didn't get enough PT bailing for greener pastures instead of trying to stick it out.

I think you should still have to sit a year if you transfer as a freshman, just IMO.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

You know what stops all of this? Having players sign contracts for $$. That's the next natural step if they open up "free agency" as they're describing.

That's exactly where this is heading. Just another step toward the semi-professionalization of CFB. ND is not going to play this game, so this will disadvantage us in the short-term and could lead to some drastic changes in the long-term.

 

[BobbyMac]

That's exactly where this is heading. Just another step toward the semi-professionalization of CFB. ND is not going to play this game, so this will disadvantage us in the short-term and could lead to some drastic changes in the long-term.

THIS is the second step in your Super-Ivy Doomsday scenario.

Step three is the formation of the joint research committee to investigate the Super-Ivy Conference.

Step four is the announcement of the new home and away series with Georgetown and Villanova.

Boiler Up!

 

[jimmymac]

But, what about the opportunity for someone to transfer to ND, and get a degree after only 1/2 year at ND + football opportunities? There are some benefits for us.

Definitely hurts all the little schools.

 

[IrishLax]

But, what about the opportunity for someone to transfer to ND, and get a degree after only 1/2 year at ND + football opportunities? There are some benefits for us.

Definitely hurts all the little schools.

For sure, but it’s also going to be tough for any non-grad transfer to get accepted for undergrad because of required credits, etc. I still remember Kylie Fitts trying to immediately transfer in after a year at UCLA and he didn’t have what they were looking for on his transcript in terms of credits/GPA.

 

[Rack Em]

But, what about the opportunity for someone to transfer to ND, and get a degree after only 1/2 year at ND + football opportunities? There are some benefits for us.

Definitely hurts all the little schools.

Won't happen. There are strict transfer rules for ALL students at ND. You must transfer to ND before your junior year begins (i.e. you must spend at least 4 semesters at ND to graduate with an ND degree).

So there will be zero benefit to ND on this.

Signed,
Former Transfer

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

Personally I think this is a horrible idea there needs to be some guidelines. You'll end up having every great Freshman or Sophmore basketball player wanted to transfer to duke, kansas and kentucky, and it will be the same for football except bama, michigan, ohio state and so forth.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

For sure, but it’s also going to be tough for any non-grad transfer to get accepted for undergrad because of required credits, etc. I still remember Kylie Fitts trying to immediately transfer in after a year at UCLA and he didn’t have what they were looking for on his transcript in terms of credits/GPA.

Yup. If the credits you've already earned aren't sufficient to put you on to track to graduate on time, ND won't accept you as a transfer. That's partly why we never take JuCos, and a big reason why so few transfer into ND already. The number of eligible transfer students who could contribute on field for us is tiny. Doing away with the NCAA obstacles designed to discourage program shopping is only going to benefit the football factories.

 

[loomis41973]

Horrible idea and will hurt ND.

 

[Luckylucci]

But, what about the opportunity for someone to transfer to ND, and get a degree after only 1/2 year at ND + football opportunities? There are some benefits for us.
Definitely hurts all the little schools.

Of course, there will be some benefits but will they outweigh the negatives? Just like with standard recruiting, our available talent pool will be substantially smaller than those schools we are competing against, or comparing ourselves too. Furthering the gap even more.

 

[Rack Em]

Of course, there will be some benefits but will they outweigh the negatives? Just like with standard recruiting, our available talent pool will be substantially smaller than those schools we are competing against, or comparing ourselves too. Furthering the gap even more.

I'm going to disagree with you on this. There isn't any benefit to ND.

Aside from Gilman, who was the last scholarship football player to transfer to ND? The only ones I can think of are Bobby Burger and Dave Ruffer in 2008. Burger earned a scholly for 1 year I think and Ruffer didn't even transfer in as a football player. He got recruited off his dorm team.

Very, very few will make it through 1 year of semi-pro football with the coursework to transfer to ND. We might be able to pick someone up from Vandy, NW, Duke, Stanford, or Rice. But even that is a huge question.

EDIT: I forgot about Jordan Prestwood....

 

[Luckylucci]

I'm going to disagree with you on this. There isn't any benefit to ND.

Aside from Gilman, who was the last scholarship football player to transfer to ND? The only ones I can think of are Bobby Burger and Dave Ruffer in 2008. Burger earned a scholly for 1 year I think and Ruffer didn't even transfer in as a football player. He got recruited off his dorm team.
Very, very few will make it through 1 year of semi-pro football with the coursework to transfer to ND. We might be able to pick someone up from Vandy, NW, Duke, Stanford, or Rice. But even that is a huge question.

Exactly, because the rules are what they are right now, those will be changing.

There will certainly be cases where a 2-3 star player, that we missed in recruiting, is at BC, Duke, UVA, NW, Vandy, etc. and wants to continue to get a good education but also wants more football exposure. It won't outweigh the negatives as I've already illustrated but we'll certainly have opportunities to take advantage of it somewhat.

 

[Luckylucci]

For example, if Gilman was allowed to play this year, that would've benefited ND football. He'd have been the best Safety on our team. Would it compensate for what other programs would be doing? Probably not, but we would have some benefits of it. That's just a fact.

 

[Irish#1]

This is not a good idea, period.

 

[NDdomer2]

i thought it was reported they pushed the vote on this back to next year

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

I'm going to disagree with you on this. There isn't any benefit to ND.

Aside from Gilman, who was the last scholarship football player to transfer to ND? The only ones I can think of are Bobby Burger and Dave Ruffer in 2008. Burger earned a scholly for 1 year I think and Ruffer didn't even transfer in as a football player. He got recruited off his dorm team.

Very, very few will make it through 1 year of semi-pro football with the coursework to transfer to ND. We might be able to pick someone up from Vandy, NW, Duke, Stanford, or Rice. But even that is a huge question.

EDIT: I forgot about Jordan Prestwood....

Amir Carlisle.

 

[indianamouse]

Amir Carlisle.

Cody Riggs

 

[Rack Em]

Amir Carlisle.

Good call.

Cody Riggs

Wasn't he a grad transfer?

 

[T-Boone]

If they have a restriction that the transferee can play but only a maximum of 4 games (similar to what they are proposing with changes to red shirt year eligibility) then it would not be so bad because star players would be less likely to transfer while players not getting a game would still likely go.

 

[Legacy]

I could see schools responding by contracting with a player/family for multiple year scholarships. Imagine a family thinking "Minnesota is offering a four year, Ohio State a one year, Alabama a two year, Notre Dame a four year."

 

[STLDomer]

Horrible idea. Can’t think of anyone this is good for.