Word is starting to leak about a bizarre new NCAA rule that will go down as one of the worst ideas in recent college sports history -- a rule that could make a free agent of the leading returning scorer in college basketball.
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| Taylor Coppenrath could have left Vermont high and dry under the new rule. (Getty Images) |
A student-athlete who earns an undergraduate degree in four years but still has one year of eligibility remaining -- a medical redshirt, for example -- can transfer into another college's graduate school and finish his or her career there ... immediately. No sitting out a year. It's graduate, transfer and play.
Like a lot of NCAA legislation -- the eight-and-five scholarship limit comes to mind -- this rule (called Proposal 2005-54) was written with good intentions. According to the NCAA's Legislative Review Committee, "A student-athlete who earned his or her undergraduate degree has achieved the primary goal of graduation and should be permitted to choose a graduate school that meets both his or her academic and athletics interests, regardless of his or her previous transfer history."
Sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds fair. Sounds sweet.
It sucks.
Here's why:
What about the school that loses little Johnny Overachiever? This is the kind of rule that sounds good until you put a face on it, and that face belongs to Gary Neal of Towson. Neal, who averaged 26.1 points last season, is the top returning scorer in Division I. He's a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who hit 40 percent of his 3-pointers, 80 percent of his free throws, and pitched in 2.9 assists per game. He's also a transfer from La Salle who has graduated in four years but has one year of eligibility left.
Towson's the school that took a chance on Neal, who left La Salle amid allegations of rape (he was found not guilty in November). Towson's the school that helped Neal graduate. Towson's the school that should reap the benefits of Neal's fourth and final year of eligibility.
Not UConn, not Oklahoma, not any of the heavy hitters said to be lining up for Neal. And that list will grow longer as more coaches learn about this misguided rule.
CBS SportsLine.com on Wednesday asked six coaches from five different leagues if they knew about the new rule, which went into effect on April 27. Only two did. The other four couldn't believe what they were hearing.
"You're kidding," said one coach from the Big East. "That's got to be the dumbest rule I've ever heard."
"That's (expletive)," said another coach, this one from the Atlantic 10. "That can't be right."
