NCAA delaying vote on potential one-time transfer rule

For the past few months, the NCAA has been considering a potential change to its transfer regulations and policies for student-athletes across all sports. While a working group has been considering changes to those rules, a vote on the matter won’t come until 2021.

The association announced on Friday that it has decided to delay the vote on a potential one-time transfer rule until January 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That likely means that a new rule, should it be passed, won’t go into effect until at least the 2021-22 academic year.

From the NCAA:

The Council discussed recommendations from the Transfer Waiver Working Group, which has recommended that waiver guidelines be changed to allow first-time four-year transfers in all sports the ability to compete immediately. While the group didn’t take a vote on the recommendations, it provided valuable feedback with regard to timing and uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also recommended the Division I Board of Directors lift the moratorium it placed on transfer legislation last fall in order for the Council to vote on the concept in January 2021.

Initially, the NCAA had planned to meet this spring to vote on the matter. In the immediate wake of the pandemic, the association decided to push the vote until May. Now, there will not be a meeting on the topic until January.

Over the last few months, the working group has put together a potential plan to allow first-time transfer student-athletes to be immediate eligible at their next destination. It would cover all sports.

The B1G first proposed the idea of a one-time transfer rule and it picked up traction from other leagues across the country. It seems like an inevitably that some sort of change will be implemented, it may just take a little longer than expected.