NCAA Recommends Delaying Transfer Waiver Changes

The NCAA Board has recommended a delay on the voting of the one-time transfer rule due to COVID-19

The NCAA Board of Directors has recommended a delay on the voting of the one-time transfer rule originally proposed by the DI Transfer Waiver Working Group, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as their reasoning.

"The board agreed to lift the moratorium on transfer legislation for the 2020-21 legislative cycle but recommended to the Council that changes to the waiver process as suggested by the working group are not appropriate at this time. Board members recommended the waiver process be sensitive to student-athlete well-being, especially those impacted by COVID-19 in the interim period."

- NCAA Board of Directors

This is merely a recommendation from the Board of Directors, and not a definitive stance. Voting on the one-time transfer rule could still happen as early as the Board's May meeting.

In February, the DI Transfer Waiver Working proposed a concept to the Board of Directors that would allow the student-athletes competing in men’s & women’s basketball, baseball, men’s ice hockey and football a blanket one-time transfer waiver. These are the only five NCAA sanctioned sports which do not legislatively allow students-athletes to transfer and compete immediately.

The board called the proposal on waiver changes as “not appropriate at this time." 

Prior to the recent decision, the moratorium on transfer legislation for the 2020-21 legislative cycle was lifted allowing further proposals and votes in the future.

The transfer waiver process has always been complicated. In October 2018, a change in the NCAA transfer rules opened the door for programs to initiate contact to student-athletes who entered their name into a "transfer portal." Last fall, the NCAA's Board of Governors tasked the working group to look into changes to the transfer waiver.

The student-athletes in the five sports whose names were placed in the portal were required to sit out a season - unless under certain situations. Special circumstances included coaching changes, family illness and injury to the student-athletes. The most common claim, however, was a student athlete being "run off" by a coach. 

The recommendation comes just one day removed from the Board of Directors announcing that they were moving towards allowing student-athletes to receive compensation from "third-party endorsements both related to and separate from athletics," essentially allowing student-athletes to capitalize on their name, image and likeness (NIL).

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