Sports With Simmons: New Transfer Rule Will Harm NCAA Sports

Several reports confirmed Wednesday that the NCAA will be passing legislation that would allow several major sports to allow undergraduate players who transfer schools to immediately be eligible to play for their new team. Previous restrictions required players to redshirt for one season, meaning they were not eligible to play until they had sat out a year.

But this change is merely the newest update in a long trend that continuously blurs the line between college and professional sports, and it will ultimately harm sports much more than help them. Rule changes like this will allow athletes to essentially create super-teams, providing them with the power of professional athletes to shape the landscape of college sports and removing all benefits of an amateur model. 

Super-teams like the Golden State Warriors dynasty of a couple years ago imbalance their league, with uber-talented athletes flocking to a team for a few years to win a couple titles and leave when that goal is achieved – rewarding players who want easy solutions. (Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant  is a perfect example of a generational talent with commitment issues who is solely focused on winning titles the easy way).

Super-teams ruin the fun in sports because at the beginning of each season it becomes painfully obvious that only two or three teams have a chance at winning a title. While the recent history of college football has usually boiled down to Alabama and Clemson grappling for the title, moves like this would only make the sport more predictable and less fun to watch. That reality would intensify in collegiate sports with this new transfer rule.

Though some schools will never be as competitive as others, with this new rule in place, it opens the doors for talented players to join the most stacked teams in their sport and be a part of a team they know will win.

For example, let’s say Ohio State junior cornerback Shaun Wade was disappointed that he had not won in his previous two trips to the College Football Playoffs with the Buckeyes. Instead of grinding it out and finding a way to win with the program that he pledged his loyalty to several years ago, he could decide to simply leave Ohio State and join the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

This hypothetical would bolster an Alabama defense that is already one of the most fearsome in the country and further widen the talent gap between the handful of powerhouses in college football and the mid-major programs struggling to compete. 

Furthermore, it would continually shift the focus of college athletes away from preparing for life beyond athletics.  According to The Conversation, fewer than 2% of all college athletes ever earn the opportunity to play professional sports in any capacity. The rest of athletes will one day have to face the reality that they must derive an income from something other than professional sports.

Part of the college experience is earning a degree, which drastically enhances your ability to land a job after you graduate. But if all college athletes care about is figuring out where they can transfer to get a ring, having the desire to earn a college education will be less and less of a priority. This can hinder college athletes from being able to succeed in the real world.

Everyone wants to find ways to help athletes succeed in collegiate athletics. But allowing players to transfer at will, with no consideration of the long-term consequences, will not be beneficial to either athletes or universities. 

John Simmons is the Web Manager. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnSimmonsJr7.