Starting this fall, collegiate athletes will be allowed to transfer one time without having to sit out one year of competition. According to the Associated Press and other reports, the NCAA Division I council has voted in favor of the one-time transfer rule on Wednesday.
The so-called one-time exception has been available to athletes in most 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 that available to them without asking the NCAA for a special waiver and claiming a hardship caused the need for a transfer. Athletes who have graduated have also been permitted to transfer without sitting out under the so-called grad transfer exception.
This year, athletes in all sports must notify their schools they intend to transfer by July 1. Beginning in 2022, that deadline changes to May 1 for fall and winter sports and July 1 for spring sports.
As expected, the council also voted to let the current recruiting dead period expire on June 1. Due to the COVID pandemic, the dead period has been extended several times, forbidding coaches and recruits to meet face to face for the last 13 months. Starting on June, 1 both official and unofficial visits and camps can resume.
Liberty, like the vast majority of Division I programs, has frequently utilized the transfer market to bolster rosters, particularly in recent seasons by football and baseball. With the passing of this new rule, expect this to become even more common moving forward.
