It’s no secret that college sports have been the Wild Wild West over the past several years, specifically in football, with a lack of clear and uniform rules and regulations surrounding things like NIL and the transfer portal, combined with a lack of real ramifications for those who broke the rules that are in place. However, it sounds like the NCAA is finally proposing rules that would help fix one major problem.
Over the past several years, coaches across various college sports have sounded the alarm on tampering, expressing frustration at opposing teams and coaches contacting players on their roster in attempts to convince them to enter the transfer portal.
The most recent example was Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who publicly called out Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding for tampering, sharing messages showing the Rebels were trying to lure linebacker Luke Ferrelli into the transfer portal despite already joining the Tigers on campus.
Swinney expressed his frustration that there were “no consequences for tampering” under the current system.
“This is a whole other level of tampering,” Swinney said last month. “It’s total hypocrisy. This is a really sad state of affairs. We have a broken system, and if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance.”
Apparently, Swinney’s pleas were heard by the NCAA.
This week, the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee has proposed some real penalties for tampering, recommending that the Division I Cabinet adopt emergency legislation to address schools adding transfer players to their football roster if the player did not provide prior notification of their wish to transfer during the transfer portal window.
If a team adds a player who was not active in the Transfer Portal at the time of transfer, the NCAA is proposing some severe punishments.
- The head coach would be prohibited from all football (recruiting and on-field coaching) and administrative duties (team meetings) for six contests.
- The school would be fined 20% of its football budget.
- The school would be required to reduce the number of roster spots by five for the next season, regardless of the head coach’s employment status at the school.
“We felt this was appropriate to place an emphasis on this rule with where we are in Division I football,” said Mark Alnutt, chair of the oversight committee and director of athletics at Buffalo. “We have a window for student-athletes to notify their school when they would like to enter the Transfer Portal. If there is movement without going through the process as it is legislated, the committee felt there needed to be significant penalties.”
“Attempts to circumvent the transfer window process is an issue for the sport. We want to let everyone know that this is not going to be allowed, and the committee wants to protect the transfer window that has been established,” said Georgia director of athletics Josh Brooks, who heads the committee’s calendar subgroup.
If approved at the Division I Cabinet meeting in April, the legislation would become effective immediately and finally add some real punishment for something that has been a problem in college football for years.
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