The NCAA won’t change the one-time teleportation law — a college basketball win in their eyes John Calipari.
A move to allow unlimited transfers with instant eligibility was rejected, The NCAA Division I Board of Directors announced Wednesday.
“The board has chosen not to enact a new exception to transfer rules that would allow student-athletes to transfer multiple times and be eligible immediately if they meet the requirements to advance toward a degree at their new school,” the NCAA said in a statement. “However, the Board of Directors remains committed to continuing to study the impact of the new transfer rules in the short and long term.”
This comes after Kentucky The head coach told campers at the Players First Fantasy Experience in Lexington this weekend that moving to a free-for-all location in the transfer gate would do more harm than good, especially for non-powerful programs.
He wasn’t looking for his own school - Kentucky is arguably the most preferred transportation destination in the country. Instead, he was fighting for smaller programs that lost their precious pieces to high-ranking schools through the gate, a stance he has since adopted before the one-time teleportation rule was implemented.
“When he first came up with how are we going to go through a no-penalty transfer deal, I only said once, ‘You understand you’re helping Kentucky,’” Calipari said. “Saying that, what did you think the NCAA would do? “You’re helping Kentucky.” They won’t, they’re helping Kentucky, and they’re going to change that. Well, they didn’t.
“Now, you can’t just move once, (they’re thinking) as many times as you want. You only have a reason.” “Oh, my nails.” “Well, you’ll have another year.”
Calipari was also concerned about the academics, with players pushing themselves away from graduation by finding green grass through the gate on multiple occasions.
“The thing is, if we’re talking about education, if you move once, it’s going to be hard to graduate soon,” he said. “If you transfer two or three times, you don’t have a chance of graduating on time. Let’s talk about the academics and let’s fight it, and keep it in one year. If you need to take a year off, make it a year late and come back. They don’t. “.
Compare that to his time at UMass and Memphis. If there was an unlimited transfer rule back then, he wouldn’t have had the continued success that he had. He was going to lose his key players for several years at the gate.
“If I had been at UMass, where I had Jim McCoy, Anton Brown, Will Herndon, would they have stayed with me for four years? No,” Calipari said. “Then I got Tony Barbie, Harper Williams, Derek Kellogg, and I had another group, Lou Roux. Would they stay with me four years? When I was in Memphis and I had Chris Douglas (-Roberts) and Antonio (Anderson), were they going to stay four years? In Memphis? I don’t think so.”
They wanted to rise to a higher level, looking for bigger and brighter opportunities. If it’s not a destination school, well, it might be a departure school.
“My point is, it’s not good for coaches below the level that kids will want to come in,” Calipari said. “They’ll want to come in and say, ‘Okay, I’ve got the guys ready for where I want to go. I want to spend the last year or two with you coach. A year probably.’
“How about Keelan (Grady) last year? Didn’t you love Keelan? That’s the greatest kid. We were fortunate to have grad students, Reed Travis, kids who graduated and that was good for them, good for us.”
It also creates a tough scholarship situation for schools that are fighting to keep their players while also looking to add alternatives in the gate. How many scholarship players do you keep on the list? Do you leave an open space or fill in the team?
“I said it was going to happen. I’m in Memphis, Massachusetts. I’m going to get the kids to leave, but I’m also going to have to go get the transfers,” Calipari said. Or you only have 10 so you have room? Let’s say there are 350 programs, and they all hold two. They won’t offer all of their scholarships because they might have a kid in the middle of the season who says they want to move on. Two will hold back. These are 700 scholarships that young people in our country will not get.
“How is it cured? Everyone fears there will be a lawsuit (law), this that and the other. Well, at some point, you have to let them sue you. Make it revolve around the academics. That is why we protect this.”
Or the NCAA decided to reject the idea entirely. For now at least.
“The Board of Directors remains committed to continuing to study the impact of the new transfer rules in the short and long term,” the NCAA said on Wednesday. The unlimited transfer rule was not triggered, but the First Division Board of Directors did not completely eliminate the idea. New transmission windows of varying sizes have also been implemented for fall, winter and spring sports, Controversial addition by NCAA.
However, it looks like academics will be a top priority when considering changes going forward - as Calipari had hoped.
“Like their fellow student-athletes, college athletes choose to move for any number of reasons,” said Jerry Moorhead, University of Georgia president and board chair. “We believe the changes made today enable member schools to adapt to student needs, while also positioning students for long-term academic success.
“These changes to the NCAA rules recognize that more study is needed on graduation rates before we can consider allowing multiple transfer opportunities with immediate eligibility. We will continue to review potential modifications to transfer rules as the landscape evolves over time.”