I thought this was going to be implemented a year ago but it looks like it will fly this time. NCAA Council to introduce legislation allowing one-time transfers without penalty beginning in 2021
Free agency is coming to college football and basketball. With the one and done going on in basketball, I don't think it will hurt them but I'm afraid football will be changed forever and not for the better.
Basketball, esp womens, has been transfer city for a few years now. The NCAA has been more and more lenient on granting immediate eligibility. More than a few of the transfers have been players from mid-major programs moving on to Power 5 programs after a good year or 2. It's a different problem than the 1 and done players, which I think will be going away as the NBA G-League starts to be more and more attractive for those players who want to go to the NBA out of HS. Football though it's going to be a major disruptor IMHO. I can imagine, esp those highly recruited players who don't play enough as freshmen or start as freshmen leaving, not wanting to "wait their turn" and develop. I can also see a number of players who have good years at a program that is middle of the road program seeing an opportunity to move to a higher level program and take it. Just like the players getting endorsement money, you can certainly make some sort of case that they deserve it, that they are just kids and that they were lied to be the coaches who recruited them or those coaches aren't there anymore, etc. but it's still going to be an issue.
I agree Scott, take a kid who was a 2 or 3 star out of HS, ends up at Utah State or North Dakota State and blows up, now he's like a 5 star JC transfer, he can move up to a Power 5 team and get some of that endorsement money, get more exposure and lift his NFL draft status. It'll get testy with in a conference though, a kid who shines as a freshman or soph at a lower level Big 10/SEC/Power 5 team and fits a need for the elites of the conference moves on to a team in the upper level of the conference will cause some hard feelings IMHO. But the move has the potential to again get them some more money in the endorsement game and raise their NFL profile. Just think of that kid from Purdue, Rondale Moore, what if after that spectacular freshman season, he decided he wanted to test the waters and move to Ohio State, or Alabama, or Michigan...now he wasn't exactly an unknown though going into college he was a 4 star player so maybe he's not the best example.
Yep, it won't be the same for me. There is something about a player like Mac Jones sticking around with Halen Hurts and Tua Tagavolua ahead of you on the roster and then coming into his own that I enjoy. I'm not saying he would have transferred but I'm sure it would have been enticing if he knew he wouldn't have to sit out a year.
I think that sitting out a year, certainly tamped down the transfers of undergrads. Good article from this summer on the winners and losers from the current transfer portal rules...I'd expect the number of players will jump up 30% once they don't have to sit out a year. ____________ More than 100 quarterbacks and easily more than 1,000 players entered college football's transfer portal, and some programs have fared much better with that roster-building option than others. Winners and Losers of the College Football Transfer Portal so Far
Two things I noticed in the article, first they only get one free transfer and second I believe it has to be done by May. Our Coach Dan Mullen has been very good at getting four and five star transfers. We don't seem to get many five star recruits but he has done great getting transfers who were highly ranked.