Starting next season, top college football and basketball players will be allowed to transfer once before graduating without having to participate in a year of competition.
The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to change the long-standing rule that often deterred high-profile sports players from changing schools, two people with knowledge of the Associated Press’ decision told The Associated Press. advice.
People spoke on condition of anonymity because the two-day meeting was still in session and council decisions would not be official until it ended on Thursday. Athletic first reported on the board’s vote.
The so-called unique exception has been available to athletes from other NCAA sports for years, allowing them to transfer and play immediately. Athletes in football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey and baseball have not had it within reach without asking the NCAA for a special waiver and claiming a difficulty caused the need for a transfer.
Athletes who have graduated have also been allowed to make the transfer without sitting down, regardless of the sport, but not the college students.
Starting this fall semester, all athletes will run under the same rules: transfers will be allowed to be played immediately.
Those who practice fall and winter sports must notify their schools before May 1 that they intend to transfer them; in spring sports, the notification date will be July 1st. Notification dates start in 2022.
For this year, athletes of all sports will have to notify their schools of their intention to transfer before July 1st.
The council also voted for the current deadly hiring period in all sports to expire on June 1st. The ban on hiring in person has been in place for more than a year due to the pandemic. Coaches will again be allowed to visit recruits off-campus, camp on campus, and welcome potential student-athletes on official recruitment visits.