MORGANTOWN — It sort of slipped through the cracks last week, or maybe was swept away under the darkness of nightfall, but there is much more going on in college athletics than conference realignment.
That is the current storm sweeping through our sports world, as we now actually live in an era where decisions by Oregon and Washington may actually have some sort of effect on the future of WVU athletics.
There is a bigger hurricane on the horizon, one that could totally flip NCAA athletics on its backside.
The Division I council has endorsed a recommendation to eliminate the one-time transfer option to the NCAA’s current rule, meaning athletes could transfer multiple times without having to sit out a season to become eligible.
Currently, NCAA athletes have the ability to transfer once and still be immediately eligible. A second transfer requires a waiver from the NCAA for immediate eligibility, like the ones WVU men’s hoops players Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Tre Mitchell received back in June.
The proposal is now sent on to the Division I Board of Directors, which will vote on the change in August.
And so you ask: What exactly are we looking at?
This is not to single out former WVU men’s basketball guard Teddy Allen in any way, but his college journey became quite the story in last season’s NCAA tournament, as he scored 37 points to lead New Mexico State to a first-round upset against UConn.
One reporter used the term “roundabout” in describing Allen’s journey that saw him attend four different schools in four years, including other stops at Nebraska and Wichita State.
He sat out a season after transferring from WVU in 2018 and then attended a junior college for the 2019-20 season.
He enrolled at Nebraska in 2020 and then transferred to New Mexico State in 2021, where he received a waiver for immediate eligibility.
So, yeah, roundabout sort of fits.
“As far as the roundabout, I don’t really look at it like that,” Allen replied. “I just look at it like, you know, I’m a junior. I’ve been at a couple of schools, and this is the one that I’m at right now, and I’m just trying to make the best of these opportunities, and I’m grateful for them, and there, that’s basically it.”
Allen’s is a nonchalant view to an ever-increasing public relations problem for the NCAA.
That problem is many college athletes likely view transferring as unemotionally as Allen does. Meanwhile, the fan bases — made up of an older generation of people — view transferring as a major problem.
Fans do not want to see a revolving door of athletes coming and going around their school’s athletic facilities. Heroes are hard to root for if they are only around for two semesters.
This will never be met in the middle. Fans aren’t going to change their views and athletes will always do what’s in their best interest.
If this rule gets passed, you’re going to see a ton of Teddy Allens out there, which is to say guys spending their college careers at three or four schools, because there’s nothing holding them back.
And so if you think the NCAA is looking down the barrel of a gun with realignment, just wait for this vote next month.
“Experts,” and we use that term with a major smirk on our face, are basically giving it a 50-50 shot to pass.
If it does, the NCAA might as well wave the white flag, because college athletics would never hold the same meaning it once did.
TWEET @bigjax3211
