NCAA Announces NIL, Transfer Rule Changes; Schools Can Now Facilitate Athlete Deals

Schools will now be more involved in name, image and likeness opportunities for college athletes following Monday's decision by the Division I Board of Directors.

The NCAA announced the board chose to accept and affirm previous actions from the Division I Council that permits schools to facilitate NIL deals for athletes with third parties. Essentially, schools can act as brokers of sorts to connect athletes to third parties that can pay them for the use of their name, image and likeness.

However, the schools cannot pay the athletes directly.

The Division I Board of Directors also accepted actions from the Division I Council regarding transfer eligibility. Athletes who are academically in good standing are now immediately eligible to transfer to and play for other schools even if they have transferred in the past.

Previous rules allowed players immediate eligibility following their first transfer but required them to sit out a year for any subsequent transfer decisions.

Yet even that hadn't been the case of late, as a court injunction in December allowed athletes to maintain immediate eligibility even if they had previously transferred. Monday's decision just accepted the ongoing practice as an official NCAA rule.

There are still some restrictions, as Chris Vannini of The Athletic noted Wednesday the transfer portal windows will remain. What's more, players cannot play for multiple teams during the same season.

As for the NIL changes, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported earlier this month the NCAA's NIL working group recommended to the NCAA Division I Council that it should adopt the proposal to allow schools to provide such "assistance and services" to athletes.

Dellenger also pointed out at the time that many NCAA administrators believe the future of NIL is one where it will be "operated from within school athletic departments, more commonly referred to as 'in-house NIL.'"

This is a step in that direction as the NCAA, its member schools and athletes continue to adapt to the new age of college sports with more individual freedoms when it comes to switching schools and earning money.