ACC Supports One-Time Transfer Rule for All Student Athletes

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The ACC wants to give student athletes more freedom to transfer.

On Monday, the conference released a statement saying it supports adding a one-time transfer rule for all student athletes at the league's winter meetings last week.

"The ACC discussed the transfer environment and unanimously concluded that as a matter of principle we support a one-time transfer opportunity for all student-athletes, regardless of sport," the conference said. 

Under a one-time transfer rule, student athletes in every sport would get the opportunity to transfer once without sitting out a year at their new school.

NCAA undergraduate students are not always granted immediate eligibility when they transfer. Twenty sports allow a one-time transfer, but football, men's and women's basketball, ice hockey, and baseball do not. 

Currently, only students who have graduated from undergrad and transfer to continue their education in grad school are allowed to automatically transfer without sitting out for their remaining years of eligibility. Underclassmen who transfer must sit out one year for an academic year-in-residence at their new university, unless they apply for and are granted an immediate eligibility waiver by the NCAA.

Last month, CBS Sports revealed that the Big Ten has proposed legislation to adopt the one-time transfer rule. However, it is not a current proposal because the NCAA Board of Directors put a moratorium on "transfer-related" proposals in November for the 2019-20 legislative calendar.

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has previously come out in support of a one-time transfer rule.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg that the Big Ten would like to get it in the legislative cycle.

"We want to force a discussion," Smith said.

The Big Ten reportedly proposed that the transfers take place within a five-year window, and the earliest the legislation could go into effect is 2021.