NCAA Proposes Rule Change for Tampering Violations, Penalties in Transfer Portal

The Division I Board of Directors proposed an anti-tampering measure on Monday in regards to the transfer portal.

Per an NCAA press release, "The board also introduced a proposal that would direct the infractions process to presume violations occurred in cases of impermissible contact with transfer students (i.e., tampering). If the proposal is adopted by the Division I Cabinet in June, schools suspected of tampering with student-athletes prior to their entry into the Transfer Portal would need to demonstrate the violation did not occur to avoid penalties."

There are some kinks that may need to be ironed out in that proposal, at least based on the initial reaction to the news.

The reality of modern college sports, especially in football and basketball, is that tampering is running rampant on the transfer portal.

As ESPN's Max Olson reported in March, tampering tends to take on several forms—communicating with players who aren't in the portal or agreeing to deals before the transfer portal window opens are generally considered more forgivable forms of tampering.

But when agreements are broken, that's where it goes to far for many involved in the process.

One such example was one that Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney publicly shared regarding linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who had enrolled at Clemson and went to workouts and classes for a week but ultimately backed out and took more money at Ole Miss.

Per Olson, "Swinney alleged new Ole Miss coach Pete Golding texted Ferrelli while he was in his 8 a.m. class to say, 'I know you're signed. What's the buyout?' Swinney claims Golding even sent a photo of a $1 million contract offer. Within two days, Ferrelli was back in the portal."

"Once the kid gets on campus, that s--t has got to stop," an SEC general manager told Olson. "To me, that was the cardinal sin in that situation."

"He's literally in class," an agent added. "There's no way to defend it."

The NCAA is understandably looking into methods to stop it altogether, though Monday's proposal seems a bit inelegant in its design.