NCAA needs to leave graduate transfer rule alone
The NCAA has no right to restrict its students from improving themselves. If they change the graduate transfer rule, they will be doing just that.
The primary goal of any student starting college is (hopefully) to acquire a degree. For student athletes, this goal is even more difficult than it might be for the average student. In addition to their regular workload, they have grueling practice sessions, possible injuries, and a travel schedule with which they must contend.
Therefore, it is impressive when one of these student-athletes manages to finish their degree in four years. That particular feat is onerous for even a regular student. Yet a regular college student can finish their degree and move on to any graduate school they choose. The same may not be true for student-athletes.
The NCAA is trying to put restrictions on the graduate transfer rule. The current rule is that students who earn their undergraduate degrees and have any eligibility left can transfer to another program and play right away. To impinge upon this rule flies in the face of everything for which the NCAA supposedly stands.
According to their website, “Student-athlete success on the field, in the classroom and in life is at the heart of our mission.” Only if it doesn’t affect the success of an athletic program, apparently. The flap over EWU transfer Vernon Adams and Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson’s defection to Florida State had the coaches of those programs in an uproar that still continues.
These are not employees under contract-they are students, and if they want to better themselves by transferring to another program, neither the NCAA nor the conference nor their team should have any right to stop them from doing so.
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Indeed, barring student athletes from enjoying the same privileges that any other college student enjoys is both irresponsible and inequitable. Considering that most college football players will not go on to play professional football, it behooves the NCAA to encourage the students in all of their academic endeavors, no matter where they are.