US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NEW NCAA DI TRANSFER RULES AND TRANSFER PORTAL

THE NEW DIVISION I NOTIFICATION OF TRANSFER & TRANSFER PORTAL FOR NCAA DIVISION I LACROSSE

The previous transfer rule, which required student-athletes to receive permission from their current coach and administration to contact another school before they could receive a scholarship after consent to transfer. If the school did not grant that player a *Release,* the student-athlete would have to sit out for one year, therefore the player would lose one year of eligibility and hindered the other coaches from recruiting these players to other Division I schools.

Considering lacrosse is not a revenue generating sport like Basketball or Football are for most colleges/universities, this policy was ludicrous as it deterred a student athlete from playing for one year and the chance to receive a scholarship but the Division I Council adopted a proposal that creates a new Notification-of-Transfer model formerly known as Permission to Contact, that became effective on October 15th of 2018.  This new system allows a student to inform his or her current schools compliance office or coach of their desire to transfer, then requires that school to enter the student-athletes name into the National Transfer Database known as the Transfer Portal within two business days.  Once the student-athletes name is in the national database transparent to coaches and administrators, then other coaches are unfettered to contact that individual. The proposal adds tampering with a current student-athlete at another school to the list of potential Level II (major) violations, considered a significant breach of conduct.

The new NCAA Transfer Portal is a website not only for lacrosse but all sports, that facilitates and streamlines the transfer process for all parties involved; the players, coaches and schools. Listed on the portal includes the players NCAA ID number, school, sport and e-mail address. After the compliance office submits the notification of transfer, the student-athletes academic and athletics history will be entered to determine their NCAA eligibility as stated in the NCAAs FAQ.  A player can be entered onto the portal and still remain a member of the team, however, schools are allowed to reduce or annul their financial aid and scholarship at the end of the semester in which they were placed onto the portal and a program is under no obligation to keep player on the roster that explores transfer options. And with in-conference tranfers, conferences still can make rules that are more restrictive than the national rule. We will report back with more clarity on the in conference transfers. 

This is something widely used by other sports, specifically with Football - SBNation.com and 247Sports.com have been actively tweeting about the new transfer portal but some lacrosse programs are utilizing this portal but I expect this to become more popular once the season ends in May as this is the first year in place and may intrigue players to leave their respective teams. 

Contributed By: Tom Michaelsen

Sources: NCAA.org | 247Sports.com

About the Author

Tom Michaelsen - former High School All-American & Nassau County Attackman of the Year Runner-Up, 4x Starting Attackman at St. Johns University who was the leading point scorer all four years, 1st player to earn All-ECAC & was selected to the USILA North-South Senior All-Star Game and earned NSCA All-American. The 1st player from St. Johns to be drafted professionally to the MLL and NLL. Has been involved in the game of lacrosse for over 20 years.