The Infamous Graduate Transfer Rule May Be Up For Major Changes

One-and-dones in college athletics might undergo a change soon.

Not the one-and-dones who try college basketball for a season before bolting to the NBA. The one-and-dones who graduate and leave their institution for one year to compete immediately elsewhere.

The rule allowing student-athletes with undergraduate degrees to transfer with immediately eligibility might be tweaked when the NCAA meets during its January convention. The changes will not include the requirement for graduates to sit out a season similar to rules applied to undergrads.  The NCAA reported last week that student-athletes who graduate and transfer might have to meet enhanced academic standards if two concepts proposed by the Division I Committee on Academics become rules.

The concepts: Graduate student-athletes must declare a specific degree program and they must complete at least six hours of degree-applicable credit per semester.



The rule changes would ensure that the graduate student-athletes are making meaningful academic progress toward a specific degree. The current academic requirements for students who want to compete elsewhere after graduation are minimal. They require only enrollment in graduate school or other postgraduate studies. Students are not required to declare which degree they are seeking or a major for post-baccalaureate studies. They must only enroll for six hours of academic credit.

If the new concepts are approved by the Division I council, the graduate transfer rule will become more of an academic move for the athlete than purely an athletic one. As it is now, the rule adopted in 2006 allows graduate students immediate eligibility at another program, has changed the face of college athletics.

Recruiting has taken on a different form with these student-athletes able to transfer and compete immediately at another school, most of them for one season as a senior. Some coaches intentionally leave scholarship spots open or maneuver personnel to make room for a postgraduate athlete. Failure to plan on a potential graduate transfer filling a spot of need could affect a coach’s quest for a conference title and deep run in the postseason. Good coaches prepare for anything.

A recent NCAA study revealed that 15 percent of postgraduate students transfer to another school to complete their athletic eligibility. Many athletes do not complete their undergraduate studies within four years, but those who do mostly stay at their school.

The number of those transferring has increased since the graduate transfer rule came into effect nine years ago. After last season, for the first time in Division I basketball history, more than 500 players switched schools, many of them graduate transfers. Many of these athletes go from a mid-major to a Power 5 conference program for added exposure and the lure of playing for higher stakes. The athletes who go from one Power 5 team to the next are similar to  high-priced free agents in pro sports.

The notion with these transactions – to use a term applied to professional sports – is that academics take a back seat to a student’s athletic endeavors.

Coaches who lose the players are most vocal about how damaging the rule can be to their program. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has labeled the graduate transfer rule a “farce”.

Villanova coach Jay Wright lost valuable senior point guard Dylan Ennis, who graduated and decided to transfer to Oregon to complete his one year of remaining eligibility. “We’ve come to that point where we’ve got to find a balance,” Wright told the Philadelphia Inquirer in July. “What are we really doing this for? Are we doing it for the student-athletes? Or are we doing it so universities can have good teams? It’s a difficult issue because it’s inhibiting coaches from building a culture of team.”

On the other hand, Wright also said, the rule is “definitely in the best interest of some student-athletes”.

The NCAA has made bold moves in recent years that favor the welfare of the student-athletes – stipends, unlimited free food, etc. — and this rule is one of them. But most of the athletes are taking advantage of the graduate transfer rule to improve their athletic standing, not their postgraduate studies. The potential new concepts applied to the rule can change that idea but to a minimal degree. Student-athletes may be forced to declare a postgraduate degree and complete at least six hours of degree-applicable credit per semester, but will they stay in school after their season is completed?

The NCAA may revise its Academic Progress Rate to include graduate transfers, but members of the Division I Council reportedly are committed to keeping Academic Progress Program simple and easy to implement with undergraduate reports.

So for now, rule change or not, college athletics will be viewed as a minor-league system to the pros with graduate athletes jockeying for position with academics on the back burner.

So be it. Coaches who take advantage of the system view it as important for student-athlete development. “If they change this rule so now I can force a kid to stay with me and be my backup, I think that’s just cruel and unusual,” Stanford coach David Shaw, who lost three graduate transfers from last year, told the USA Today.

It’s becoming obvious with student-athletes gaining more stature in today’s NCAA, the rule should be left alone.