Should Pac-12 and Big Ten players be allowed to transfer without penalty?

When the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that it was canceling/postponing the fall collegiate sports season — including football — how the players would react was a huge question mark

One week after announcing that their college football seasons would be canceled/postponed, players from the Big Ten and Pac-12 took to social media to announce their displeasure regarding the decision.

“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is.”

The Pac-12's #WeAreUnited group responded to the cancelation with their own statement, saying...

"It is obvious that the Pac-12 was woefully unprepared to protect college athlete safety in response to COVID-19 and could not address the basic and essential safety demands made by #WeAreUnited," the group said in the statement, which was critical of the conference's lack of transparency in making Tuesday's decision. "The Pac-12's failures have made it clear that the time for change is now. The system is broken. College athletes deserve and need a real voice in the form of a players association."

Now Ole Miss head coach has added fuel to the fire when his comments the other day sparked outrage from the Big Ten and Pac-12 — yet made a clear point to the players and NCAA.

Simply put, Kiffin believes players from those conferences that wanted to try and play in the fall should be immediately eligible to transfer to a conference that is playing fall football.

"I don't understand it at all," Kiffin said. "If a kid wants to play football and he's not allowed to play football at his school and his conference, why can't he go somewhere else and play? How much sense does that make?"

According to Kiffin, the NCAA isn't allowing the players to transfer based on their respective seasons being canceled.

"The issue is they're not giving guys immediate eligibility," Kiffin said. "At first we thought, if they got shut down, the NCAA would say 'If your conference and school isn't going to let you play you can transfer and be eligible somewhere else.' They've come out and said that's not the case. You're not going to win a waiver.

"I think you would have seen a lot if that would have happened. You would have seen free agency."

But does Kiffin have a point? — (Yes, I just wrote those words...)

For many juniors, seniors and draft-eligible sophomores, robbing them of a fall college football season is criminal considering how it could seriously effect their future. 

Take for instance Joe Burrow, the former LSU quarterback. Entering last season, Burrow was at best a Day 3 draft pick — although it was more likely he would be undrafted. But all he did was go out during the fall season and have the best college football season ever by a player, win the Heisman trophy and national championship AND become the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.

If the COVID-19 pandemic would've happened last fall and Burrow was robbed of a season, NONE of what was previously stated would've happened.

Among those leading the charge to play this season are Clemson quarterback Trevor Allen, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Oregon left tackle Penei Sewell — all of whom are considered the top-three prospects in college football and surefire top-5 picks in next year's NFL draft.

With the Big 12, ACC and SEC expected to start their respective seasons in the next six weeks, it appears that anybody transferring this season and playing this fall is nothing but a pipe dream. The NCAA made that abundantly clear that transferring because of the pandemic to play this fall is a no-no and will not be granted a waiver.

But Kiffin has made a point, one that should've been addressed two months ago when the potential for seasons to be canceled was being discussed.

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