NCAA Council to Vote on Measure That Could Restrict Graduate Transfers
The NCAA's Division I Council will vote in two weeks on a measure that could restrict the graduate transfer rule, according to The New York Times.
The proposed rule change would make colleges that accept a graduate transfer give up a scholarship the next year if the transfer does not earn his degree within a year. If the change is approved, it could be implemented as soon as Aug. 1 and would only affect football and men's and women's basketball, reports the Times.
Football teams wouldn't feel the affects of the proposal as much, considering they have 85 scholarships, compared to the 13 that a men's basketball team receives.
South Dakota State athletic director Justin Sell said that the proposal aims to curb players from transferring solely based on their eligibility.
"We really want to protect against the football player who is done and leaves in December and the basketball player who is done and leaves in March," he said. "A lot of students are looking to use it to play another year. Who’s seriously there for the master's?"
An NCAA graduate transfer study on 353 student athletes from 2011-12 found that one-third of men's basketball graduate transfers and one-quarter of football graduate transfers earned a graduate degree after two years. Almost 40% of football players left after their first graduate term.
Under the graduate transfer rule, the NCAA allows a student athlete that has earned an undergraduate degree but still has eligibility remaining to change schools without sitting out for a year. However, undergraduate athletes have to sit out for one year after transferring in football, men's and women's basketball, baseball and men's ice hockey.
