The RoundHouse | 2/6/2018 9:32:00 AM

By Paul Suellentrop
 
If college basketball is moving toward a sort of free agency, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall knows to expect the unexpected.
 
"It will be like the wild, wild West," he said. "We are a couple hours from Dodge City, so it's going to be exciting, thrilling. A mess."
 
With increased pressure to change transfer rules to give student-athletes more freedom to choose their athletic and academic path, sources that include ESPN and CBSSports.com report that the NCAA will consider several options. Reported proposals range from allowing immediate eligibility for a one-time undergraduate transfer to allowing immediate eligibility to student-athletes who want to transfer after their coach leaves or if the school is placed on probation. Some proposals place limits on the transfers, such as requiring the student-athlete to carry a certain grade-point average.
 
"It's going to be a tough situation, but we're going to have to adapt with any proposals the NCAA thinks is going to be best for our student-athletes," Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie said. "The difficult thing is, you're not going to know what your team is going to be like from year to year if everybody can just transfer."
 
Currently, most student-athletes must sit out a year after transferring. That rule covers men's and women's basketball, football, hockey and baseball. Part of a Big 12 proposal, according to CBSSports.com, extends that to all sports, while allowing immediate eligibility in circumstances such as the departure of a coach (without allowing the student-athlete to follow a coach to a new school).
 
"Some of the momentum is being driven with the coaching change situation," South Florida coach Brian Gregory said. "If a coach leaves, does everybody on that team have the ability to transfer to a school of their choice? I think that has some merit."
 
These proposals follow the lead of the graduate transfer rule, which permits immediate eligibility to student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree and are pursuing a graduate degree. Former Shocker center Anton Grady, who transferred from Cleveland State to play basketball for the 2015-16 season, is an example of a graduate transfer.
 
"Changing the NCAA's entrenched transfer rules has become one of the most significant undertakings in the association's history," wrote Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. "Coaches have long been able to "block" where a transfer goes. Athletes also have to seek release from their scholarships to immediately get aid at another school. Frequently, they have to get "permission" from the school/coach to move on to their desired school."
 
Around the American Athletic Conference, coaches are waiting to see how their recruiting and roster management may change, perhaps as soon as 2018.
 
"It's going to be hard, hard, hard to plan," Marshall said. "Especially if they do it right away and anywhere you want to go. I'm going to be opposed to the hand-shake line at the point, after the game, maybe even before the game."
 
Gregory, who is in his first season at USF, had six Bulls transfer after the 2016-17 season and the departure of the former coach. He brought in three graduate transfers, eligible immediately, to rebuild his roster
 
"We have to be cautious," Gregory said. "You also have to be cautious if you're going to put a grade-point average with that, as well. There are different ways to manipulate that."
 
Missouri Valley Conference coaches largely reacted negatively to the idea of immediate eligibility for transfers. Many of them fear high-profile program poaching from their roster and using them as a farm system. Tulsa coach Frank Haith shares their concern.

"I'm not too excited about it," Haith said. "I'm of the idea that if you transfer, you have to sit. I think it would create a bad deal in college basketball."
 
Wichita State has largely profited from transfers during Marshall's tenure. Gabe Blair (East Carolina), Malcolm Armstead (Oregon) and Conner Frankamp (Kansas) played large roles in the recent successes. The proposals could potentially dramatically alter the market for transfers and Marshall is concerned about the potential for unforeseen consequences.
 
"Bedlam," Marshall said. "Madness. People are going to be plucked right off another team's campus, dorms, apartments, where ever they live."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.