LINKS: Transfer Rule Change News, Extended Eligibility for 2021 NCAA Rosters (UPDATED)

The NCAA Division I Council is currently meeting and there are three key issues on their plate: (1) a one-time grant of transfer eligibility without a year-in-residency, (2) name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation, and (3) an extension of eligibility for current winter athletes due to COVID-19.

News is leaking of approval but finalization may be tricky—each of these would likely need a wider confirming vote in January. Of course, basketball is the focal point around these parts, but the news certainly excites the fans of hockey, rifle, women’s bowling, fencing, gymnastics, skiing, swimming and diving (woohoo!), indoor track and field, and men’s wrestling. The question appears to turn to scholarship availability.

The NIL situation is very interesting, and thoughts have been expressed on Casual Hoya about the potential for Georgetown to capitalize with Nike, Jordan, Coke, etc., especially with the BIG EAST’s focus on small-roster sports like basketball.

This humble blog contributor is not a fan of the proposed free-transfer provision. It is a recipe for bedlam, not consistency.

Also, it seems like the proposed eligibility extension for winter athletes is an assumption that basketball will not have a full season. How does a coach decide between re-recruiting a senior to stay versus giving promised minutes to high-potential freshman next year? Rosters are going to be crazy.

Here are the links:

NCAA Proposal Says Transfers Will Be Granted Immediate Eligibility | SI

The Council is expected to introduce the proposal into the NCAA’s 2020–21 legislative cycle at its meeting Wednesday, with a vote coming in January for an effective date of Aug. 1, 2021.

Under the proposal developed by the NCAA Working Group on Transfers, athletes are afforded a one-time transfer during their athletic careers without suffering the penalty of sitting out a season, reversing a policy from the 1960s. Fall and winter sport athletes would have to notify their schools of a transfer by May 1, with an exception extending the date to July 1 for an end-of-the-year head coaching change or the non-renewal of scholarships. Spring sport athletes would have until July 1 to notify schools of transfer. Athletes missing those deadlines would not be immediately eligible at their new school.

NCAA Council to introduce legislation allowing one-time transfers without penalty beginning in 2021 | CBS Sports

The NCAA will introduce a one-time transfer exception proposal into the 2020–21 legislative cycle, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd has confirmed. The proposal developed by the NCAA Working Group on Transfers is expected to be voted on, and passed, by January, and the adopted proposal would then become effective on Aug. 1, 2021...

Fall sport athletes, like football players, will have to notify their schools of intent to transfer by May 1. There is an exception to extend that deadline to July 1 if there is an end-of-year coaching change or scholarships not being renewed. The athletes must leave their previous school academically eligible to qualify, which makes sense given that the year to sit out was traditionally viewed as a way to help the player adjust academically to their new school.

Sources: NCAA one-time transfer proposal, notification deadlines being finalized | The Athletic

In the NCAA environment, waivers are supposed to be for exceptional circumstances, but they became an increasingly popular tool in recent years and, after the NCAA in 2018 added a loophole granting immediate eligibility in cases featuring “documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete’s control,” have been approved at a rising rate. According to information provided by the NCAA through Oct. 5, 88 percent of the immediate-eligibility waivers submitted for men’s basketball players and football players for the 2020-21 academic year were approved (320 out of 363). In 2019-20, 69 percent of such waivers were approved (374 out of 539).

Back in April, the NCAA’s Board of Directors agreed to lift the moratorium on transfer legislation to allow its members to consider proposals that could provide permanent access to the one-time transfer exception for all Division I student-athletes.

NCAA’s Name, Image, Likeness Legislation Proposal Revealed in Documents | SI

Also, an institution can prohibit an athlete’s involvement in name, image and likeness activities that conflict with existing institutional sponsorship arrangements or other school “values,” the proposal says.

Athletes would be allowed to enter deals with agents but for only three specific reasons: to give advice for NIL ventures, assist in contract negotiations and help market an athlete’s NIL ventures. Athletes must disclose their NIL ventures and their relationships and contracts with agents to the schools and a third-party administrator yet to be named. The third-party administrator could develop “a web-based platform for individuals to submit information to satisfy new disclosure requirements, report to an oversight entity (e.g., NCAA) national trends and monitor and evaluate NIL activities for possible malfeasance,” the document says.

#BIGEASThoops Notebook: Big Guys Still Big in the BIG EAST | BIGEAST.com

“He played big boy basketball tonight,” said his head coach Patrick Ewing, who knows a thing or two about performing at The World’s Most Famous Arena, after Omer Wahab’s performance that November night. In conference play, the freshman’s minutes continued to increase with graduate center Omer Yurtseven sidelined due to an injury. Wahab played at least 20 minutes in seven of the Hoyas’ final nine games, highlighted by a six-block performance in a win against DePaul.

“That one game he had six blocked shots, I told him, ‘Don’t tease me just getting one of those,’” said Ewing. “The sky’s the limit for him. I believe in him.” Look for the 6-11 Nigeria native to only heighten his impact as a sophomore.

NCAA Set to Grant Extra Year of Eligibility for Winter Athletes | Hoyas 247

In a year that has seen higher education budgets across the country get drastically reduced from the financial effects of COVID-19, schools may not be able to afford the financial cost of carrying extra scholarship players on its roster after this season.

Georgetown, for example, has already publicly stated that it expected a $50 million shortfall before the fall semester even began this year, and has instituted sweeping budget cuts to help cushion the financial blow.

From a basketball standpoint for the Hoyas, senior forward Jamorko Pickett and senior guard Jahvon Blair are two players who would seem to benefit the most this ruling, as well as grad transfers Jalen Harris and Chudier Bile.

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UPDATE:

DI Council extends eligibility for winter sport student-athletes | NCAA.org

Winter sport student-athletes who compete during 2020-21 in Division I will receive both an additional season of competition and an additional year in which to complete it, the Division I Council decided. The same flexibility was provided to student-athletes after the spring season was canceled in 2020 and the fall season was seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DI Council introduces name, image and likeness concepts into legislative cycle | NCAA.org

Division I moved a step closer to changing its name, image and likeness rules when the Division I Council this week introduced concepts providing more opportunities for student-athletes into the 2020-21 legislative cycle. The Council met by videoconference Tuesday and Wednesday...

Both prospective and current student-athletes would be required to disclose name, image and likeness activities, including compensation arrangements and details of relationships developed through the process. The group continues to support use of a third-party administrator to assist with overseeing the disclosure process; monitoring and reporting name, image and likeness activities; and educating key stakeholders, including student-athletes, prospective student-athletes, boosters and professional service providers.

The Division I Council requested the Legislative Solutions Group package the concepts as several independent proposals for a Council vote in January 2021.