Twenty college athletes wanted to transfer to a new campus. Could they? It fell to Ronald Moses to help sort it out.
Last Friday, Moses, an executive senior associate athletic director who works in athlete welfare at Old Dominion University, met with three or four athletes who wanted to transfer from the Virginia campus. They needed to track down their transcripts and syllabi so his counterparts at their next institution could determine which of their credits could count toward curricular requirements at their new campus. Sometimes that means figuring out why there may be a hold on a transcript. Did they pay for their parking pass? Is there some other fee they still owe?
Then he met with Old Dominion’s recruitment coordinator for athletic teams about potential incoming transfer students — 16 or 17 in total — who would be visiting over just that weekend alone. They went student by student to determine which of their credits would count at Old Dominion, and who might need to take classes over the summer to get up to speed.
It was a typical spring day for Moses, who is responsible for monitoring the academic lives of Old Dominion’s athletes. But the job isn’t what it used to be. In 2021, the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s top division abandoned a rule that made athletes in certain sports ineligible to play in the first year after transferring. Since then, college athletes have been transferring much more frequently. Other recent developments — new rules and the introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) payments, among other things — have added fuel to the fire.
Most public attention about this transfer-heavy era has focused on the competitive implications. But behind the scenes lies a mountain of labor that falls to those, like Moses, who work in academic advising inside athletic departments.
“The transfer rules changed,” he said. “Academic rules never change.”
Threat of Ineligibility
Athletic eligibility in the NCAA is governed by a thicket of regulations.
For starters, players must complete a certain number of credits each year or risk being declared ineligible. They also must declare a major by their sophomore year.
Even these basic rules can create friction when moving to a new campus. When Moses evaluates transcripts and syllabi from a potential transfer, he is trying to determine whether enough of their credits will come with them to keep them eligible at Old Dominion. And if they are a rising junior or senior, he will have to figure out if they can keep their chosen major.
Sometimes that means looking at exactly what was taught in a class to see if it fulfills an Old Dominion requirement. For example, on that same Friday in April, Moses had to figure out whether a class on the history of the state from which one athlete was transferring would count toward a history requirement. Since the state was not Virginia, it would not.
Majors can be difficult to keep. Some of the most popular, such as business-school degrees and STEM majors, have strict requirements that are particular to their program. “Business schools don’t like taking other business-school credits,” Moses said. “That makes it hard to stay on track.”
At the University of Washington, where Kim Durand is deputy athletic director of student services, there’s a particularly high number of transfers this year — both in and out — because the football coach and men’s basketball coach are leaving. At times, Durand said, the major a student started is not offered at her institution. So she and her staff will try to find something similar.
Then there’s the matter of grades. Some colleges will accept D’s. At Old Dominion, transfers have to have earned a C or higher in a class in order to bring those credits with them. Realities like these can catch athletes off guard, Moses said, when they have to retake classes over the summer or give up their major.
Academic advisers, meanwhile, are navigating a new type of relationship with the athletes they’re working with. In the past, they might have gotten to know a student in high school and seen them through a four-year degree; now they may have a year or two with students. While many academic advisers say they support the changes and the autonomy it gives athletes, they also try to counsel them on some of the benefits of staying in one place for college.
“I still do research with my undergraduate adviser. I have known him since I was 19 years old,” Moses said. “I think we are going to lose a little bit of that.”
‘Speed Dating’
The 2021 rule change was not the only thing that affected the volume of athlete transfers. In the same year, colleges began permitting players to earn NIL money, meaning they can now sign endorsement deals. In reality, payouts from NIL collectives — separate organizations that collect donations and cut checks to athletes in exchange for their NIL rights — are a big part of the recruitment process. That new market is fueling many of the transfers, academic advisers said.
On top of those changes, there was the pandemic. To make up for lost seasons, the NCAA gave some college athletes an extra year or two of eligibility. That means some of the athletes that were undergraduates back then can still play. Many are taking advantage of their extended eligibility by transferring to other universities to pursue graduate degrees.
Then the rules changed again just last month. Previously Division I athletes could transfer only once in their career without needing to sit out before playing for their new college. But as of last fall, when a federal judge temporarily barred the association from enforcing its old rule, they have been able to transfer as many times as they like. A new rule rolled out last month allows the practice, so long as athletes clear certain academic hurdles. That’s added more athletes to the pool and the need to track down transcripts and syllabi from multiple colleges.
The NCAA does impose certain 45-day windows on transfers, but the periods for various sports are staggered, so when one closes, another may open. If your job is to evaluate transfers for all sports, you could be doing that for most of the year.
This new reality means academic advisers need to be in regular communication with the registrar, the office of admissions, the compliance department, and various deans, in addition to the coaches. The staff members in those offices are a key part of making athlete transfers happen.
“It’s critical I’m continuing to build great relationships with those folks,” said Stephon Fuqua, an associate director of athletics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who works in academic services. Often that means explaining, “This is the reality of our world right now and here’s what we’re asking.”
Often a college will evaluate a potential transfer, get them set up in their preferred major, and then find out they have been scooped up by a coach somewhere else. Moses estimated that Old Dominion evaluated over 400 transcripts for potential transfers last year, and just under 100 enrolled.
The competition between coaches is fueling a sense of urgency. Sometimes they’ll ask academic advisers to let them know if a student is eligible within 24 or 48 hours because they’re so worried someone else will get them.
“You can compare recruiting in the transfer portal to speed dating,” Fuqua said, referring to the NCAA database where athletes can signal to other coaches that they are interested in moving.
Evaluating a high-school transcript or even someone with one year of college under their belt can take 10 to 15 minutes, Moses and Durand said. But a student who’s trying to transfer for their senior year? That can take up to two to three weeks. And in this new era, coaches are often looking for players with a few years of experience and a proven track record — players who may have been at more than one institution and who need to come in with a lot of credits.
“It’s grueling,” Durand said. “And it’s nonstop.”