Prospective college baseball players aim to find a school that fits them academically and athletically. This doesn’t always happen on the first try though. Pretty frequently, we see student-athletes that aren’t happy with their college decision. As a result, they decide to take their talents elsewhere. We thought it would be helpful to provide a brief overview of the NCAA baseball transfer rules and regulations for these players.
This is a concise summary of the pretty lengthy transfer bylaws that the NCAA has in place. It should be a good starting point for those who are interesting in learning more about the transfer process.
For starters, you should understand the definition of a transfer student. The NCAA considers you a transfer if you meet any of the following conditions:
- Attended class while being enrolled as a full-time student during any term. For Division I specifically, if you enrolled as a full-time student, and were present on campus for the opening day of classes.
- Attended a regular baseball practice.
- Practiced or participated in competition while enrolled less than full-time.
- Received institutional financial aid while taking summer classes.
Academic Year of Residence
The NCAA requires transfer students, from a four year university to an NCAA institution, to spend an academic year of residence at the new school before being eligible to play. The student must enroll full-time for two semesters to satisfy the academic year of residence. There are exceptions though. You may be eligible to compete immediately if you meet all of the following conditions:
- You are transferring to a Division II or Division III school. If you are transferring to a Division I school, there is a chance you won’t have to sit out a year if you weren’t recruited and didn’t receive an athletic scholarship from your original school.
- You are athletically and academically eligible at your original school.
- You receive a transfer-release agreement from your original school.
Common Impacts
The academic year of residence guidelines along with the exceptions listed above often result in the following:
- If you are currently at a DI school and are looking to transfer to another DI institution, you might have to spend an academic year of residence before you can play.
- DII and DIII players who wish to transfer to a DI program, will also likely have to sit out a year.
- DI players transferring to lower tier divisions (DII, DIII, NAIA) are typically eligible to play immediately.
- Junior college players are not held to these same standards, and can typically play immediately at any division level, as long as they are academically eligible.
Aside from the exceptions, the NCAA also has something called a waiver. Waivers essentially determine that a rule doesn’t apply to you due to extraordinary circumstances. The conference or the NCAA would likely administer a waiver that the university athletic department would have to file for. Waivers aren’t just specific to NCAA baseball transfer rules, and can filed for other NCAA bylaws.
Permission-to-contact
If you are currently at a four year university, the NCAA does not allow athletic staff members from other schools to contact you. The only exception is if you have a letter of permission from your current athletic department. If you aren’t able to get this permission-to-contact, others schools can’t engage in conversations with you about transferring. Additionally, for Division I and Division II schools, you won’t be eligible for an athletic scholarship until you’ve spent a full year at that new school. These rules only apply for student-athletes transferring from one NCAA baseball program to another. If you are currently at a junior college, you won’t have to get a permission-to-contact letter.
If you are currently at a Division III school, and wish to transfer to another DIII program, the process is more simplified. In this scenario, you can issue your own permission-to-contact form. This will allow other DIII programs to reach out and have transfer related conversations.
NCAA Baseball Transfer Rules and What It Means for You
As you start to consider the possibility of transferring to another school, it’s vital that you understand the rules and regulations. We often see players make decisions before they fully understand the impacts from an eligibility and an academic year of residence standpoint. Transferring can be a time consuming and tedious process, with financial burdens too. To make sure that you do it right the second time, we would recommend tapping into resources that will allow you to make calculated decisions about the next school you select.
We also recently shared an interesting article about programs’ tendencies for bringing in incoming transfers. This is one of the evaluation points that is included in our tool, and is a fantastic way of identifying programs that are in need of incoming transfers.