This might be the last year for the graduate transfer rule. Or any transfer that would allow players to be immediately eligible to play right away. At least if the college basketball coaches have their way.
But if the members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors get their way, all transfers will have to sit out a year, regardless of their issue. There was apparently only one dissenting vote when the group met last week to discuss the issue and suggest to the NCAA a change.
The “transfer free agency” that has overrun college basketball is a direct result of waivers and loopholes that were added to the books a few years ago with good intentions but have netted mixed results.
Of the two most controversial waivers, one allows players to play immediately if they have an ill relative within 100 miles of their home. The other — the one being taken advantage of more and more this spring — allows players to graduate early and seek a master’s degree not offered at their present institution.
Working against the college basketball coaches is that the rules they oppose also apply to all other NCAA sports, so it may not be the easiest thing for them to get changed.
But it is nothing new for the NABC to seek to protect their own interests first.
