NCAA loosens transfer restrictions again

Following meetings in Indianapolis on Thursday and Friday this week, the Division I council announced further loosening of transfer restrictions, this time for walk ons and incoming student-athletes enrolled for spring or summer classes.

If the head coach departs before the first day of classes during the fall, incoming freshmen can transfer and play immediately. While the rule change will benefit early enrollees especially, it won’t change the eligibility calculation regarding Texas freshman wide receiver Bru McCoy, who transferred from USC following the departure of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury.

The other major change allows walk-on student-athletes to transfer and play immediately without a waiver.

It’s definitely a win in our books,” said Enna Selmanovic, Student-Athlete Advisory Committee vice chair and a former swimmer at Cincinnati who will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences. “(Allowing student-athletes in certain situations to transfer and play immediately) provides student-athletes with more opportunities to have the best experience possible within their collegiate career.”

Other significant proposals weren’t passed, including one requiring schools “to count financial aid for some postgraduate transfers against team limits for two years, regardless of whether the student remained enrolled after exhausting athletics eligibility” in basketball and football. The other major defeated proposal was to add a third paid assistant for baseball and softball.