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Would Aztecs basketball be harmed or helped by NCAA transfer proposal?

Malachi Flynn of SDSU would not have had to sit out a season under a proposed rule that would grant immediate eligibility to first-time transfers in basketball and football.
(Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

New rule could be enacted by 2020-21 and would eliminate requirement to sit out one season

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“The wild, wild West,” San Diego State basketball coach Brian Dutcher was saying after practice Tuesday.

He wasn’t talking about the title race in the Mountain West, which the Aztecs clinched a week ago with four games to spare.

He was talking about proposed NCAA legislation that could be enacted as soon as the 2020-21 season, allowing players a one-time transfer without the current stipulation of sitting out one season. Something called the Transfer Waiver Working Group proposed it Tuesday and forwarded it to the Division I Council’s meeting in April.

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Free transfers are already allowed in every Div. I sport except football, basketball, baseball and men’s ice hockey. It has served as a deterrent for an already vibrant transfer market each offseason, giving smaller programs a fighting chance of keeping their best players – or more of them – from being poached by power conferences. Already, two in five men’s basketball players transfer before their junior season.

But NCAA legislation has increasingly tilted toward “student-athlete welfare” in recent years, and many view relaxing the transfer rules as the latest concession that doesn’t involving paying them.

“I’m not in favor of it,” Dutcher said. “I’m all for what’s good for the kids. But at the end of the day, it’s not going to be good for any of us. At some level, you have to give it a couple years to see how it works. Unfortunately, that’s probably not what will happen. As soon as something doesn’t go exactly right, kids will think: ‘I’m going to leave.’

“It fits with the culture, the way things are going now. Kids switch high schools. They switch AAU teams. They switch all the time. Sometimes it’s to their benefit but a lot of time it’s not.”

The idea was first broached by an NCAA committee in 2017, then kicked around the following year with an academic component like a minimum grade-point average to be granted immediate eligibility.

That didn’t gain traction, leaving the issue to the Transfer Waiver Working Group that is looking for ways to ease a waiver process overwhelmed by transfer candidates seeking permission to play immediately. A higher percentage of waivers were granted in men’s basketball than ever before last summer and fall, perhaps as a precursor of what’s to come.

The proposed rule, in essence, would automatically grant waivers to all first-time transfers. There would still be some basic criteria but similar to what exists now in other sports.

Because it is merely a alternation of criteria for waivers and not a full-blown rule change, it doesn’t have to go through the NCAA Convention, which next meets in January 2021, and instead can be approved and implemented through the Div. I Council in April.

“The current system is unsustainable,” Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference and chair of the transfer committee, said in an NCAA release. “Working group members believe it’s time to bring our transfer rules more in line with today’s college landscape.”

The irony: Conferences like Steinbrecher’s could be the biggest losers.

Here’s what former Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson, who had a star forward plucked by Alabama, said two years ago when the subject was broached:

“I’m being completely honest and serious ... You can shut mid-major basketball and low-major basketball down. It’s over. That’s a strong quote, I stand by it, and I mean it. The coaches can’t do anything about this. We are getting ready to be a farm club system.

“If you think these guys aren’t going to be contacted (by power conference schools), you’re living in a world that has fairies. And I’m telling you right now, Tinker Bell ain’t in college basketball .. We are going to end up with two divisions (within Div. I) and you can just shut this down.”

Even Rick Pitino, before he was fired at Louisville, railed against the idea.

“Probably the worst piece of proposed legislation I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Pitino said in 2017. “It wouldn’t be bad for Louisville. But it’s terrible for Miami of Ohio. If somebody has a young man that suddenly blows up and he’s at a mid-major school, this kills mid-majors. Anybody who blows up (will say): ‘You know what? I can go play at Duke, Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky. Let me transfer to a bigger level.’”

The good news for the Aztecs: They’re 26-0 and ranked No. 4 in the country, far better positioned to capitalize on a transfer free-for-all than, say, a year ago.

“As a whole, we’ll be able to get whatever players we want,” Dutcher said. “As much as we’re not in a power conference, we’re not a mid-major. We’re a power conference school in a mid-major conference, is the way I look at our program. We’ve always had the best transfers. These kids we have now, they could have gone anywhere in the country and they still thought this was the best fit.

“We’ll adapt to whatever rules are in place. If that’s what they feel is in the best interest of college basketball and the student-athlete, then we’ll adjust to it and continue to build a strong program.”

Malachi Flynn, for example. He came to SDSU from Washington State after his sophomore year, redshirted last season and is the favorite to win Mountain West player of the year.

“I think it’s good for the players. I think it will create some problems, too,” Flynn said. “It’s a good step in the players’ direction, because it feels like we don’t get as much leeway (in leaving) as coaches do. But I do think it will create problems with people transferring.

“No one wants to sit out, but it can be beneficial. It just depends on who you are. I think in my case, it definitely helped putting in that work last year.”

Will it become the wild, wild West?

“Just the way it is these days, kids are ready to get up and go quick,” Flynn said. “I feel like they’ll start hopping around. Hopefully that won’t happen. Sometimes it’s good, because you’re in the wrong situation. But sometimes you need to stay there and realize you can’t play right away as a freshman.

“I think it will be a whole different dimension for college basketball, with a whole lot of guys transferring. It will be fun to see, but there will definitely be a lot going on.”

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