Transfer Rule

[osugrad21]

Link

Some teams cashing in on loophole for transfers
Friday, August 18, 2006
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Florida coach Urban Meyer spoke out against the NCAA’s new graduate-transfer rule in May, calling it a loophole that needed to be — and eventually would be — closed.
He’s more approving now, especially after cornerback Ryan Smith used the rule to leave Utah, enroll at Florida and give the Gators some muchneeded depth in the secondary.
"I like it this year. I won’t like it next year," Meyer said.
Cal coach Jeff Tedford and Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson might agree; they also accepted transfers under the new legislation. Others, though, have questioned and criticized the rule that allows athletes who graduate and have eligibility remaining to transfer without the penalty of sitting out a season.
"It’s a bad rule because anything that encourages disloyalty is an awful thing," Duke coach Ted Roof said.
The Division I board of directors passed the legislation in April, giving accelerated student-athletes more options when it comes to pursuing graduate degrees and waiving the normal one-year waiting period if they decide to transfer. Coaches fear it will encourage programs to secretly recruit players who qualify to transfer.
It already might have happened.
Smith started 12 games for Meyer and the Utes in 2004 and had 44 tackles and an interception. He started the first five games last year but was replaced in the lineup midway through the season by the new coaching staff.
He left Utah after spring practice, saying he was physically and mentally exhausted from the game, but quickly began making plans to move to Gainesville.
His transfer somewhat coincided with the departure of cornerback Avery Atkins, who was released from his scholarship in June after he was accused of striking the mother of his 2-month-old child.

 

[BB73]

The way Smith got his degree and transferred might get a hard look from NCAA rule-makers (see the sentence I bolded). I'm sure this isn't the type of thing they had in mind.

usatoday

Coming out of high school, Smith, from Diamond Bar, Calif., had hoped to play for a Pacific-10 Conference school. But no one was interested in a cornerback who barely weighed more than the cheerleaders, no one except Utah assistant coach Kyle Whittingham. Utah's scholarship offer was his only one.

"I went to Ryan Smith's home and saw a 147-pound, skinny-looking guy with a great family," Meyer says of the trip he took with Whittingham after he was hired in December 2002. "I recruited him because I had to. I didn't want him after I saw him. I got in the car, looked at Kyle and screamed,
'What are you doing? We have to compete for a championship.' "

As it turned out, the Utes did just that. After redshirting his first year, Smith started all 12 games of their perfect 2004 season and was named a second-team freshman All-American by The Sporting News.

After that magical season, Meyer was hired by Florida and took cornerbacks coach Chuck Heater, who was close with Smith. Smith's sophomore season unraveled as his play slipped. After starting the first five games, Smith lost his starting job, along with his confidence. "It all snowballed, and that led to a little conflict between me and the coaches that was hard to get over," Smith says.

Four days into spring practice this year, Smith decided to leave the team.
Intent to graduate before his scholarship ended, Smith finished the spring semester and then earned a whopping 21 credits during summer school sessions at Utah; he completed the work for one class and took six others. He planned to transfer to Division I-AA Howard this fall.

College free agent

"Last May, I caught wind of the fact that he left the team," Heater says. "I called one of Utah's assistants because I was concerned for a good kid." Smith seemingly couldn't transfer to Florida under SEC rules because he didn't have enough eligibility remaining.

In passing, Heater told a school compliance officer that Smith was graduating in 3? years and had two years of eligibility left. That's when he learned about the new NCAA rule that allows athletes who graduate and have eligibility remaining to transfer without sitting out a year.

(A quick aside: Meyer is thrilled Smith is a Gator but is opposed to the rule, which is being challenged through the NCAA legislative process because several coaches have opposed it. "I think anytime you use the word free agency in college football it's bad, and that's what it is," says Meyer, who discussed the move with his friend Whittingham, now the Utes' head coach.

"Ryan Smith was a free agent. That shouldn't happen in college football.")
Heater called Smith's father, Lance, a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Police Department, and Smith's father jumped into action. While Lance Smith contacted the NCAA and the SEC and handled the logistics, his son immersed himself in school and worked out on his own.

"He just hammered it," Heater says. "It was a tremendous credit to him and his dad. It was a lot of stress, but the carrot was he'd have a chance to play college football at a great place." Smith graduated and applied to Florida's graduate school of education.