Syracuse Basketball: NCAA drops ball with transfer vote

The NCAA made headlines again for voting to approve one-time transfers. However, the untimeliness puts Syracuse basketball on the short end of the stick.

Syracuse basketball got a raw deal from the NCAA. Heck, every program in the country did.

In case you haven’t heard yet – there’s a virus going around that’s wreaking havoc across the country, and frankly, the world. Big and small businesses, organizations, committees, neighbors, whatever kind of group you can think of, have been doing their best to accommodate practically everyone they can. These are unprecedented times, so in typical American fashion, brothers are helping brothers and then some.

In typical NCAA fashion, they don’t seem to care, still operating as business as usual in many cases.

Now to be fair, I can’t be that harsh. The NCAA also recently voted to approve the return of football and basketball players to campus for voluntary workouts by June 1 – at the discretion of each individual conference and school. That is a big step forward as sports fans await the return of some type of live action.

Given all of this, it seemed like a no-brainer for the NCAA to pass a change to the current rule that forces athletes competing in football, basketball, baseball, or hockey to sit out a year after transferring to a new school. Covid-19 has perhaps limited athletes as much as anyone. Some athletes have even stated that they would play professional if given the opportunity, instead of waiting a whole year to compete again – even though they don’t get any breaks in their studies.

Unfortunately, the NCAA didn’t get the message. They do plan on moving forward to allowing this new rule. However, as stated in a CBSSports.com article, “Any new rules governing what would be a landmark change to NCAA protocol won’t go into effect this year, meaning transferring players in those sports will still need waivers if they are going to be eligible in the 2020-21 academic year.”

For Syracuse basketball, this means that Alan Griffin won’t be able to suit up with the Orange until the 2021-22 season, unless he is granted a waiver from the NCAA. This is a possibility – the NCAA has handed out many in the past – but it isn’t anything to bank on. It’s often talked about how there doesn’t seem to be any sort of pattern in terms of who is granted a waiver to play and who isn’t.

I don’t know if this is about money, or if the NCAA really can’t take a hint. Players will leave the game for better opportunities in professional leagues if they can’t play right away. These current times also add to the stress of securing a job out of college, so there could be a decent chunk of guys taking this route to the big leagues.

Syracuse basketball knew what they were getting when Alan Griffin committed. He isn’t a grad transfer, so it was always shaky on when he would be eligible. However, most people believed that this transfer rule would be passed during the unfathomable current age of Covid-19.

Unfortunately, the NCAA struck out.