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Jim Harbaugh shares ideas for allowing transfers without creating ‘free agency’ in college football
By Adam Spencer
Published:
Michigan just got some great news when it was determined that former Ole Miss QB Shea Patterson would be eligible to compete immediately for the Wolverines.
Now that he has his likely 2018 starting quarterback, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is still a bit concerned about transfers in college football.
In fact, while the Wolverines were visiting France, Harbaugh told DetroitNews.com that he supports finding some sort of way to make sure transfers don’t get out of hand. A couple of suggestions he had were having the school getting the player pay back the other school or counting the transfer’s scholarship as two scholarships:
“There’s gotta be something,” Harbaugh said. “Maybe the school pays back the other school. Say a school like Michigan gets a player from Eastern Michigan or Central Michigan or transfers, maybe you have to pay the scholarship back or maybe it counts as an extra scholarship. Just so it doesn’t become free agency in college football. That’s the thing I would worry about.”
It’s good to see that neither of these options prevents a player from transferring wherever he may choose, but it still isn’t a perfect solution, as many schools would be unwilling to use two scholarship spots on anyone but an elite player.
The conversation continues, though, and it seems to be heading in the right direction, so we’ll have to see what the NCAA eventually decides.
A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam is the news editor across all Saturday Football brands.