Free Agent College Basketball Players?

(St. Louis, MO) – Is cataclysmic change coming to college basketball? Will Division 1 basketball consist of eight major conferences? Is mid-major basketball about to become ‘second class’ basketball?

Some, including Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson, believe recent discussions among college basketball decision-makers is the proverbial ‘beginning of the end’ of what we’ve come to know as college basketball, and March Madness.

In September we began to read stories about the NCAA taking into consideration the waiving of transfers having to sit out a year before they can participate at their new institution. That story resurfaced again last week, as the NCAA said they were considering ‘hot topics’, stating…

“The 2018 NCAA Convention will provide Division I members with the opportunity to discuss important issues that will shape the division moving forward, including transfers and recruiting legislation. These and other relevant topics are on the Division I Issues Forum agenda.

            Also at the forum, scheduled for Thursday, the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will update members on its work and on issues most relevant to student-athletes.”

Recent stories indicate the NCAA could change the transfer rules as soon as this coming fall, the result would be that any college athlete with a qualifying GPA could transfer without having to sit out a season, and they could choose any school of their choosing.

Last fall, power conference coaches like Matt Painter (Purdue) and Archie Miller (Indiana) of the Big Ten came out against such ideas and many have used the refrain, ‘it will be like the wild-wild west.’

This week Missouri Valley Conference coaches weighed in too.

Loyola’s Porter Moser says that wide spread recruiting would be going on, during the season on the campuses, while players are attending school and playing basketball.

 

 

Jay Bilas, among others, at the national level hail this move as great liberty for the players, but their bias for the ‘money conferences’ so colors there opinions that they have no credibility on this subject. Many, like SIU’s Hinson believe, without restraint on some of the issues facing the college game, we are heading for a ‘two division’ situation, not unlike football’s FCS and BCS delineations.

 

 

Indiana State’s Greg Lansing laments the possibilities of what could lie ahead for mid-major coaches, saying schools like his, spend a lot of time recruiting and developing players. It would be disheartening to have every season, and offseason become ‘open season’ on experienced and talented players.

 

 

Valley coaches have told me repeatedly that even in today’s environment, they feel they need to continue to recruit their own players, knowing that ‘poaching’ is going on, even when players have to sit out a season. This would create an ‘open season’ on every player in America.

There is a ‘Division 1 Council Transfer Working Group’ that is driving much of this conversation. In their suggestions you find an appeal for uniformity in how things are handled, a link to academic progress of the athlete, and they call for increased penalties for coaches found to be breaking recruiting rules.

That committee is also suggesting a graduate transfer would receive his scholarship money for two full academic years and that scholarship would count against the scholarship allotment for the entire two years.

(To read some of that committee’s findings click here)

One thing seems to be certain. There is the very real potential that change is coming. Some in the coaching fraternity are realizing that if a coach is fired, or leaves for the next job, the student-athlete should also be free to leave without restriction.

Both the powerful BCS leagues and a players’ rights organization seem to driving this conversation.

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