Last year, a high-profile overhaul of NCAA transfer rules stopped short of creating free agency in college sports.
A much quieter change, however, helped quarterback Shea Patterson play for Michigan and will determine whether Justin Fields is eligible this fall at Ohio State. The modification to the waiver process can be seen as something of a compromise that has cleared the way for more athletes to switch schools and play right away.
The membership wanted to put immediate eligibility back on the table, said Dave Schnase, the NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs. And so whether that resulted in a high approval rate, I dont think membership knew. They just wanted to put that back on the table. And then the circumstances of each individual case would essentially dictate the approval rate.
Immediate eligibility for all transfers was considered, but ultimately not included in the NCAAs well-publicized reformation last year. New rules no longer require athletes to request permission from a school to transfer, just provide notification. Then the athletes name is entered into an NCAA-run database, the so-called transfer portal that notifies other schools the athlete can be recruited.
The new legislation, however, did not change the waiver guidelines. That modification was approved by the NCAA Division I Council in April , with few outside the process noticing.
Before the change, immediate eligibility for an undergraduate transfer could be granted only when a school could show extremely egregious behavior by the previous school. Otherwise, the most NCAA officials could grant was an additional year of eligibility, tacked on at the end of a college career.
A request for immediate eligibility can now be granted if the transfer was due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athletes control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete.
There is a lot of wiggle room in there for discussion.
Pattersons was the first well-known case to go through under the new guidelines. He transferred to Michigan after Mississippi was hit by NCAA sanctions.
