Here’s Bill Self’s take on NCAA’s one-time transfer rule with immediate eligibility

All NCAA Division I college basketball players will have the opportunity to transfer one time in their respective careers and compete immediately starting with the 2021-22 academic year, the Division I Council ruled on Thursday.

The rule is expected to be ratified by the Board of Directors on April 28.

“I am against the rule,” KU coach Bill Self told The Star in a phone interview on Thursday, shortly after the decision was announced by the NCAA. “I am for everything that could possibly aid the student-athlete. I just don’t know if in this particular situation we are really helping student-athletes with graduation.

“When you transfer and are eligible immediately and not all hours transfer, my concern is graduation rates will go down and my concern is many decisions will be based on things that are very short-term instead of long-term outlook.”

KU’s team so far this offseason has lost players Bryce Thompson, Tristan Enaruna, Tyon Grant-Foster, Latrell Jossell and Gethro Muscadin to transfer. The Jayhawks so far have added Cam Martin of Missouri Southern and Joseph Yesufu of Drake, who all will be immediately eligible to play in 2021-22.

“I am against it. I think it’s bad for our sport,” Self stated. “Look at our situation this year. Our situation, we had five kids enter the transfer portal. The five are supported 100%. I’m not sure that (losing five) would be the case if in fact you didn’t have immediate eligibility. A lot of kids don’t want to sit out.”

It has been said by many in the sports world that it’s only fair for players to be able to leave and play immediately when coaches can leave one college job for another and not have to sit out a year.

“I like for the student-athletes to be treated in a way that is 100% fair,” Self told The Star. “I do believe in name, image, likeness, so many different things, but we’ve all become programs that could potentially have tremendous turnover each and every year. There won’t be many guys like Travis Releford (former KU wing) that sit two years and start two years.”

In other words, there may not be many players in the future willing to be patient in terms of waiting for playing time.

“There’s not going to be a lot of guys like that because they want to play immediately. If you transfer, you are now eligible immediately,” Self said. “You go to one school, if it doesn’t work out, great, you go to a place that needs a 3-man. You slide right in there and don’t have to sit out. Before, if you go, you have to sit out.”

Self was asked about the perception that coaches in the new age of the transfer may “run off” players in an attempt to open roster spots for transfers that might be better players than the ones leaving.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think that’s fair at all,” Self said., referring to that accusation against coaches. “Certainly with the new rule in place, it’s going to be very common for fans to look at their team and see a totally different roster from year to year. It’s the players’ and their families’ choice. It’s not a coach saying, ‘You have to go.’ It’s a player deciding there will be some place better for him.

“People can look at it whatever lens you are going to look at it. That is not the case. We as coaches are not in favor of this. We understand in large part we weren’t in favor of it because we would like continuity within our programs. Now there is going to be less continuity than there ever has been.”

So far this year, 1,375 players have entered the NCAA transfer portal.

“I think the attention the portal has received this year is strictly in connection with the rule we knew was going to change,” Self said of the one-time transfer rule with immediate eligibility. “There have been upwards of 1,500 who entered the portal. That will certainly be consistent with the numbers for years to come,” he added.

Self said he was not surprised by Thursday’s NCAA ruling.

“One of the worst kept secrets about this becoming a rule … all coaches knew this was coming over a year ago and I know that a lot of coaches felt this would not be good for our game or sport and were opposed to it,” he said.

Self realizes mid-major coaches may be hit the hardest by the rule.

“There will be situations a player gets good at a mid-major and go up a level so to speak,” Self said. “I do think it’s a unique time to have this rule come in place with name image and likeness rules (for players) that will come in place that at this point and time we don’t know exactly what that will be. It’s certainly going to create a lot of recruiting advantages and disadvantages for many with the name image and likeness and immediate eligibility.”

It’s possible a mid-major player that emerges as a star might want to head to a program where he can make the most money selling his own name, image, likeness. There are several cases in the courts right now and the NCAA has said it is willing to endorse some rules allowing players to start making money off NIL.

“It will affect our future like it would every other team in our league’s future,” Self said., referring to the new transfer rule. “This particular year we’ve taken a couple kids that may not have been able to transfer and be (available) to us because they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sit out a year or they would not have wanted to sit out a year. It will impact a lot of people.

“This is a one-time deal every year. There will be a following year and following year after that that everybody who hasn’t transferred can enter (portal once) and immediately be eligible. I don’t think anybody is debating student-athletes have rights. I don’t think anybody is debating it will impact our sport in a way I don’t think a lot of people maybe understood the magnitude and how it will do so.”

The magnitude, Self noted, could surface when programs’ academic progress rates are calculated in the future. Schools can lose scholarships if their rates are too low.

“There are more kids transferring than there ever have been before, even before this rule came in effect,” Self said. “So that’s been the trend, the number of kids transferring. So many schools have been rewarded or penalized based on retention rates. Everything with our APR, our academic progress rate, everything with that is based on retention. Now there will be less retention than there ever has been. We’ve created a rule that obviously is going to contradict what our goals have been academically to retain kids at your respective institutions.”