Michigan Football: The broken transfer process finally hitting home

For years the college football transfer portal and eligibility process have been so convoluted that no one is quite sure who gets a waiver and who doesn’t. Now it’s hitting home with former Michigan football player James Hudson.

Fans of Michigan football can’t really complain about the process as it benefitted the program when Shea Patterson transferred and became immediately eligible last season but the same rules don’t apply to everyone apparently as the former Wolverine lineman James Hudson tried to go home for one of the most important reasons, mental health.

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“The NCAA has denied my waiver specifically because I never spoke up about my mental struggles to the administration at the University of Michigan.” Hudson wrote in his tweet. “Now the NCAA is telling me that my courage to step forward and speak about my issues was done too late and subjectively my ‘Circumstances do not warrant relief.’”

Hudson isn’t the only one negatively affected by the process as just recently former Georgia tight end Luke Ford attempted to transfer home to Illinois as his grandfather has fallen ill. The NCAA explained his grandfather is not within his “nuclear family” and that, as Ben Kercheval wrote in his story about Ford, “the NCAA ruled based on the fact that Champaign, Illinois, wasn’t within 100 miles of Ford’s hometown of Carterville (it’s just under 200 miles). That being said, there is no Division I FBS schools within his hometown.”

Legendary Bulldog David Pollock is clearly just as frustrated with the system as everyone else and he expressed his concerns in a recent interview with Dawg Nation.

“I think the people at the NCAA need to have some more consistency, the transfer thing drives me nuts.

Pollock went on to explain he understands why some transfers are granted –  in a case where a student graduates with one year of eligibility left – but the confusion came with guys like Justin Fields who transferred from Georgia, because as he says, “Jake Fromm is really good” and he was “running from competition.”

"“Fields versus Luke Ford, guys that were at Georgia, what determines who gets it?” Pollack said. “Somebody’s family is sick , or somebody has a reason to go back home and they get a no, and somebody else that doesn’t really have a reason gets a yes. That drives you nuts for the kids.”"

Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh echoed some of David’s unease with the process on his podcast Attack Each Day where he said he believed there needs to be more consistency.

He went on to tell the story of Ja’Raymond Hall who he thinks should be the example for those student-athletes wish to take their talents elsewhere.

Harbaugh said Hall arrived and “within a couple weeks, he wanted to, he asked to be able to transfer. ”

Jim sat him down and explained “if you transfer right now, you’ll violate this NLI rule, which I believe, at that time, you had to sit out for two years. Plus, you’d be leaving without passing a semester’s worth of classes. ” His advice, “right now, you and me, we’ll sit down and circle this date on the calendar. One year from now. Give it your absolute best, pass classes, get the education. Work hard as a football player to improve as much as you can, and a year from now, if you feel the same way, yes we’ll grant you that permission to speak to other schools.”

Hall did what was asked of him and UM honored the promise.

“My favorite coach was Coach Harbaugh,” Hall said in an interview with Central Michigan Life. “He instilled so much in me during that year. I learned so much from Harbaugh.”

NCAA “clear-cut” rules

To clarify, I went to the NCAA transfer terms portion of their website and read the clear-cut rules they hold so dear.

The NCAA laid out three one-time transfer exceptions which must be met in order to gain eligible immediately. They are:

1. You can transfer anywhere you want in Division II or III, “or in any sport other than baseball, men’s or women’s basketball, football” or men’s hockey.
2. You must be eligible both athletically and academically from your previous school and,
3. The previous school approves the “transfer-release” agreement.

And then, as the NCAA explains, there’s the “waiver” which they say can only be met if an “action that sets aside an NCAA rule because a specific, extraordinary circumstance prevents you from meeting the rule. An NCAA school may file a waiver on your behalf; you cannot file a waiver for yourself. The school does not administer the waiver, the conference office or NCAA does.”

Real Regulation

There is no perfect system in which we will all agree on but by all accounts, the current system is broken and I’m with Pollock who believes they should “make it judiciary, where it could be voted upon.”

Maybe put in some checks and balances and ensure the process is the same or as similar as possible for all parties involved. Create rules based on the input from experts around the league and implement required communication and counseling between coaches and players as we saw with Harbaugh/Hall exchange.

Just do something other than what you’re currently doing.