Get the latest news delivered daily!
Get the latest news delivered daily!
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA’s Division I transformation committee will recommend establishing designated time periods when college athletes can declare their intent to transfer and be eligible immediately at a new school.
The committee said Thursday it is also making recommendations to the Division I Board of Directors to update the NCAA infractions process. The committee wants to make changes that will promote timeliness of investigations and hold accountable those who are directly involved in the rule-breaking.
The transfer windows would be set on a sport-by-sport basis. The hope is they will provide some structure and clarity for both athletes and coaches.
The NCAA’s transfer portal, which debuted in October 2018, doesn’t have specific windows for movement. The only deadline is that players must notify schools that they are entering the portal by May 1 of each academic year.
In football, the coaches’ association has proposed two windows to enter the transfer portals, one right after the regular season to line up with the early signing period for high school recruits and one after spring practice. Both windows would coincide with contact periods in recruiting. Players wouldn’t be required to transfer, only to enter the portal during designated time periods.
Transfers have spiked in the last two years after the NCAA lifted restrictions requiring athletes in high-profile sports such as basketball and football to sit out a year of competition after switching schools. Now all athletes can transfer one time as an undergraduate and play with no questions asked.
In addition to providing more guardrails for transfers, the transformation committee is also working to modernize what is often a painfully slow infractions process that often punishes programs and coaches long after the offenders have moved on.
According to the NCAA, the proposed changes would “promote time-efficient outcomes,” use a more modernized set of principles and rules, and hold accountable “those who are directly involved in the rule-breaking while minimizing impact on student-athletes who were not involved.” Some of the changes to the process would include “incentivizing cooperation of all parties, additional investigative tools and more flexibility within confidentiality rules.”
The board is expected to review the recommendations at its June 30 meeting. If it supports them, it will send them to the Division I Council for feedback during that group’s July 20 meeting. The board could vote to approve the recommendations on Aug. 3.
“Today’s recommendations reflect the work of many people within the Division I membership, including those who have provided feedback and the members of the Transformation Committee,” said Ohio athletic director Julie Cromer, who co-chairs the committee with Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey. “Everyone helped in creating and refining these concepts to make them ready for board and Council approval in the next month.”
Cromer and Sankey have acknowledged the committee needs more time to take on bigger issues.
The committee has been tasked with examining student-athlete benefits – which could include name, image and likeness compensation – and minimum expectations for all Division I members.
Get the latest news delivered daily!
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.