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Pretty significant discussion at the NCAA level whether to allow immediate eligibility for college basketball transfers. No one can say what the impact will be on specific schools or conferences but there is quite a bit of negative publicity coming from mid major coaches who believe they will essentially become "farm teams" for the major conferences.

Honestly, it shouldn't have too big an impact. It would work both ways. While mid-major stars could essentially be called up, forgotten and over-recruited players can go down a level and be "the guy" for teams. It would be a two-way street. Scholarships are essentially one-year contracts, on behalf of the school, anyway. And coaches are free to bolt without any consequence.

As long as their is an academic expectation that accompanies it, like a minimum GPA, I'm perfectly fine with it. There does, however, need to be stronger punishments for schools that contact kids under scholarship and have not declared that they are transferring.

Well the coaches would really earn the salaries operating in that bizzaro world. Only 13 ships and anyone can leave at any given time. Wow! So coaches will have to recruit 2018 kids and wade thru the free agent list as well. It has all the potential of massive train wreck to me. At least make them declare they're transferring by the end of first semester so the 2018 kids can make decisions knowing the potential of the 2018 roster. Or are they going to make the NLI non binding as well? Why would 2018 kids sign in November 2017? Sound f'd up to me so it will probably pass!

The devil is in the details on this one. I honestly don't mind that players would be immediately eligible, as long as you couldn't transfer schools mid-semester and immediately be eligible the next game. That would be ridiculous. I also think there should be some kind of limitations/penalties depending on the number of transfers a player makes during their career. So like the first transfer is free, 2nd one you sit a semester, 3rd one you sit out a year, etc.

Butler had a freshman transfer before the season really began in Cooper Neese to Indiana State - I think in situations where there's a coaching change, whether the coach leaves or is fired, players should also be able to leave w/o penalty as long as it's within a certain time frame. Likewise, I don't begrudge Kyle Young who left with Holtmann to go to Ohio State and is eligible because he didn't enroll at Butler.

I would say the first transfer would be no wait but if you transfer again you have to sit a year. Bam, done and done.

Personally I don't like it, i would be ok with it if the coach gets fired or leaves....

Sounds like this has been tabled by the NCAA for the time being.

I can see both sides to this. Having gone to a mid major school for undergrad and a major school for grad school, I've seen both perspectives. If this happens, the mid majors will basically become farm teams for major programs as many have said. Perfect example, Mikey Dixon, a guard who had a good freshman year at Quinnipiac wins ROY in the MAAC. If you're a Quinnipiac fan, you're thrilled you got a good player to build around. But just like that, he overgrows the pond and wants to play at St. John's and ends up transferring. This has become more of a trend even with strict transfer rules in place at the moment...I can't even imagine how common it will become if it's made way easier. With that being said, obviously we would benefit getting the top mid major players who want to transfer. I saw someone else say that if it's your first time then it should be immediate, but anything after that you must wait. If a coach is fired or there's a real serious issue, exceptions can be made.

Personally for us at SJ, our recruiter Matt A. is among the best at identifying solid transfers and landing them so I think it will especially benefit us. That's assuming the current staff is even here in a few years but that's another story

NCAA wants to have its cake and eat it too. If these are just students who are effectively playing recreational sports then there should be no restrictions on their ability to transfer. If you want to put in what is effectively a "Do Not Compete" clause then call them what they are, employees.

MullinMayhem wrote:I can see both sides to this. Having gone to a mid major school for undergrad and a major school for grad school, I've seen both perspectives. If this happens, the mid majors will basically become farm teams for major programs as many have said. Perfect example, Mikey Dixon, a guard who had a good freshman year at Quinnipiac wins ROY in the MAAC. If you're a Quinnipiac fan, you're thrilled you got a good player to build around. But just like that, he overgrows the pond and wants to play at St. John's and ends up transferring. This has become more of a trend even with strict transfer rules in place at the moment...I can't even imagine how common it will become if it's made way easier. With that being said, obviously we would benefit getting the top mid major players who want to transfer. I saw someone else say that if it's your first time then it should be immediate, but anything after that you must wait. If a coach is fired or there's a real serious issue, exceptions can be made.

Personally for us at SJ, our recruiter Matt A. is among the best at identifying solid transfers and landing them so I think it will especially benefit us. That's assuming the current staff is even here in a few years but that's another story

It's easy to understand the Dixon scenario. What are St.John's players in rotation spots 8-13 entertaining and more importantly the 2018 kids that have signed NLI? If you're going to allow kids to transfer at will doesn't it stand to reason there is no reason to have the NLI? Continuing on, let's say the Johnnies signed 4 - 2018 kids, graduate 4 and another 4 decide to transfer and your recruiter Matt A identifies and gets 4 big time transfers. Do the 4 2018 kids get released from their NLI's? After all they signed based on the 2018-19 roster and how the coaching staff saw them fitting into the scheme of things.

It's easy to envision situations where 50% -60% of the team refreshes in any given year and that's a good thing? In the NFL,NBA, MLB there are few unrestricted free agents but in college everyone will be an unrestricted free agent?