As of this past Saturday, 41.5% of D1 and D2 basketball transfers remain in the portal, uncommitted.  Talk about being careful what you wish for.

The decision to allow unlimited transfers without incurring any penalty (sitting out a season) is just a horrible overreach on the part of the NCAA, filled with unintended consequences.  So many players arrive on the college scene with massive egos, enabled by family members, friends, AAU coaches, and others.  These are guys (of course speaking very generally) who are not used to being told to come off the bench, or that they are not the #1 option, or to work much harder on defense.  Something not going your way?  Transfer without consequence.

Only there are consequences.  High school, prep school and juco players enter the mix annually.  College benches are not getting any longer.  More and more opt NOT to fill every open scholarship.  It's a game of musical chairs that the player fully believes he or she will have no chance at losing, only for some to inevitably face a rude awakening.

All of this does not even include the inherent advantages of staying put.  From an educational standpoint.  From a personal development standpoint.  Even from a basketball standpoint.  (I can't imagine it's easy playing for new coaches and learning new playbooks so frequently.)

This is such an easy fix.  Go back to the old rules only let everyone transfer once without sitting out at all.  Crack down on hardship cases and put the real burden of proof on the player asking for the transfer.  Graduates can enroll in grad school at another school without siting out, even if they've already transferred once.  To the NCAA, the genie is out of the bottle but this doesn't wash when 41.5% of a given universe is seemingly stuck in mid-July.  Keep pushing this percentage as part of your argument.  Because the only thing worse than wanting to transfer but not being able to is not being able to play at all.  

Gwmayhem wrote:

As of this past Saturday, 41.5% of D1 and D2 basketball transfers remain in the portal, uncommitted.  Talk about being careful what you wish for.

The decision to allow unlimited transfers without incurring any penalty (sitting out a season) is just a horrible overreach on the part of the NCAA, filled with unintended consequences.  

This is such an easy fix.  Go back to the old rules only let everyone transfer once without sitting out at all.  Crack down on hardship cases and put the real burden of proof on the player asking for the transfer.  Graduates can enroll in grad school at another school without siting out, even if they've already transferred once.  To the NCAA, the genie is out of the bottle but this doesn't wash when 41.5% of a given universe is seemingly stuck in mid-July.  Keep pushing this percentage as part of your argument.  Because the only thing worse than wanting to transfer but not being able to is not being able to play at all.  

I agree with all you wrote in principle, but I think it's important to note that with NIL being allowed by the Supreme Court and athletes and state Attorneys General being more aggressive about litigating antitrust, it's not so much the NCAA's "decision" to allow unlimited transfers as what it was basically forced to do.   
 

Last edited by GW0509 (7/15/2024 11:32 am)