Media Center, NCAA
Council introduces transfer proposals into legislative cycle
The Division I Legislative Committee on Tuesday ratified a Division I Committee on Student Athlete Reinstatement decision to amend guidelines for reinstating the eligibility of student-athletes who commit violations relating to sports wagering. The Division I Council was briefed on those new guidelines during its meeting this week in Indianapolis.
For all wagering-related violations reported on or after May 2, the following guidelines will apply:
- Student-athletes who engage in activities to influence the outcomes of their own games or knowingly provide information to individuals involved in sports betting activities will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports. This would also apply to student-athletes who wager on their own games or on other sports at their own schools.
- If a student-athlete wagers on their own sport at another school, education on sports wagering rules and prevention will be required as a condition of reinstatement, and the loss of 50% of one season of eligibility will be considered.
- For all other wagering-related violations (e.g., wagering on professional sports), cumulative dollar value of the wagers will be taken into consideration with the following terms for reinstatement:
- $200 or less: sports wagering rules and prevention education.
- $201-$500: loss of 10% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
- $501-$800: loss of 20% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
- Greater than $800: loss of 30% of a season of eligibility, plus rules and prevention education.
For cumulative wagering activities that greatly exceed $800, NCAA reinstatement staff are directed to consider whether additional loss of eligibility, including permanent ineligibility, are appropriate.
“These new guidelines modernize penalties for college athletes at a time when sports wagering has been legalized in dozens of states and is easily accessible nationwide with online betting platforms,” said Alex Ricker-Gilbert, athletics director at Jacksonville and chair of the DI Legislative Committee. “While sports wagering by college athletes is still a concern — particularly as we remain committed to preserving the integrity of competition in college sports — consideration of mitigating factors is appropriate as staff prescribe penalties for young people who have made mistakes in this space.”
Previous reinstatement guidelines, which were implemented prior to the broader legalization of sports wagering, stipulated that in most cases, student-athletes who wagered on sports at any level would lose one full season of collegiate eligibility.
The council directed the national office to continue to explore issues around rules education and integrity monitoring and requested additional updates on these topics.
Scholarships for transfers
In August 2022, the Division I Board adopted changes to transfer rules that require a school that awards a scholarship to a transfer to continue to provide that scholarship for the rest of that student-athlete’s eligibility, unless they graduate, transfer again or leave for professional athletics opportunities.
The council this week adopted two modifications to those requirements. The first will allow transfers who opt not to participate in sports after a coaching change at their second school to continue to receive their scholarships without counting against team scholarship limits. The second modification exempts a school from being obligated to count the scholarship if the transferring student-athlete does not actually enroll at the school.
The council also introduced a proposal into the legislative cycle that, if approved, will continue to mandate that transfers who stop competing for nonathletics reasons receive scholarship funds until they graduate, transfer or pursue professional athletics opportunities. However, the proposed change would no longer count those individuals as part of a team’s scholarship limits if they withdraw from the school, enabling athletics scholarship dollars to be reallocated to a currently participating student-athlete.
Transfer windows
The council introduced a proposal to reduce notification-of-transfer windows to 30 days, down from 60. Data from the past year indicate that most student-athletes enter the Transfer Portal at the beginning of the transfer window.
Now that the proposal has been formally introduced, respective oversight committees and the Division I Student Athlete Advisory Committee will gather additional feedback and offer potential amendments to the proposal over the summer. A final vote on the proposal will be considered by the council during its October meeting.
