As stated earlier on ITB, Richard Kovalcheck took advantage of a new NCAA rule to transfer from Arizona to Vanderbilt without having to sit out a year.
The new rule, which allows athletes with eligibility remaining to transfer without having to sit out a year at their new school, provided they already have earned a bachelor's degree. But the ruling is not hitting it off with everyone, especially college coaches. They feel that this will cause “free agency” in college sports.
I am not so sure I would agree with these coaches, it sounds a little like sour grapes to me. First off the athlete has to earn his or her bachelor’s degree in 3 or 4 years at the maximum since any student athlete has 5 years to complete their four years of eligibility. That is barring any medical redshirt, which we will ignore for the moment. That is no easy feat in itself; most non-student athletes take four and a half years to graduate. I would like to see additional rules that allowed kids to seek transfers after a coach leaves the school with NCAA violations, but this is a first step in the right direction. So why penalize a kid if he works hard and graduates early?
Before I answer the question we can look at how easy it is for coaches to change schools. How many times in the past 5 years have you read about a coach signing a 5, 7, or 10 year contract, then 2 years later they leave to go to another school, or they get fired? The answer is quite a few. So a new coach comes in with a completely new philosophy on how to run the team and the kids that were recruited by the previous coach are doomed to ride the bench for the rest of their collegian career. They could transfer but after sitting out they might have 1 year remaining at another D-1a school or they could transfer to a lower school without sitting out.
It is the kid that gets penalized there, not the coach. The coach is off making more money at a more prestigious school. Next we have the cases where the coach commits recruiting or other NCAA violations and then leaves for another school. His previous school is slapped with penalties that might lose them scholarships, TV games, or the ability to attend bowl games. The coach walks off without penalty, but it is the kids that remain to serve the punishment.
Do I like this new rule? I will respond with an emphatic yes! It is about time that the NCAA did something to ease the transfer regulations, and it isn’t like everyone is going to transfer and cause a mass “free agency”. First they have to graduate early and secondly if they are starting or fighting for a starting spot the kids are not going to transfer. So a team might lose a backup or two, so what?? Let the kid go and have a shot at playing somewhere else because we all know if the coach were offered more money to go to a better job, he would think hard about it.
