NCAA Won't Accept Hardship Waivers for Transfers Seeking Immediate Eligibility

The NCAA's transfer rules became a little less cumbersome this week, as college sports' governing body ratified an amendment that allows for a sixth year of eligibility for transfer students. 

According to Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports, the rule allows schools to apply for a waiver granting the sixth year for a transfer student if the student-athlete has already exhausted his or her redshirt. Under this agreement, the NCAA eliminates the need for a player to submit a hardship waiver to become immediately eligible. Instead, the school can file a waiver to extend a player's eligibility for an extra season. 

The impetus is a middle-ground solution that helps avoid institutions taking advantage of so-called hardships to get a player immediately eligible. Essentially, student-athletes who transfer under hardship circumstances will be treated like other transfers—meaning they'll be forced to sit out a season and receive an extra year if their waiver is granted.

NCAA president Mark Emmert spoke on the potential rule change last year on ESPN's Mike & Mike program, per Graham Watson of Yahoo Sports:

"

The universities are saying, take that year, deal with whatever your family situation is. We know that when you transfer your probability of graduating goes down, so make sure you get your academics back up. But we don’t want to punish you so we’re going to extend another year of eligibility. We want to give you another year of scholarship, add another year to your scholarship total so that you end up being held harmless basically if you have to make that change.

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The new rule will go into effect immediately, meaning players who are transferring for the 2015-16 season are subject to the change.

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