NCAA proposes change to eliminate controversy on hardship waivers

A proposed NCAA policy change could eliminate much of the controversy over hardship waivers for athletes who transfer.

The Division I Leadership Council recommended Friday that athletes who transfer "as a result of difficult life or family circumstances" should get an extra year of eligibility tacked on to the back end of their careers but would no longer be able to apply for immediate eligibility at their new school.

The process for obtaining hardship waivers has come under intense scrutiny the last few years after a series of seemingly inconsistent decisions, some of which received significant national attention.

One of those cases involved basketball player Kerwin Okoro, who transferred from Iowa State to Rutgers last summer to be closer to his mother after his father and brother died. The NCAA staff initially denied his request for a hardship waiver — technically, the rule was supposed to apply only to caring for ill family members — but then a committee overturned that decision during the appeal process.

Meanwhile, the NCAA granted hardship waivers for other reasons that seemed less dire. For instance, Trey Zeigler was granted immediate eligibility at Pittsburgh in 2012-13 after transferring from Central Michigan because his father and former CMU coach Ernie Zeigler was fired.

"We hope this change will encourage student-athletes who must transfer based on hardships to focus on the circumstances prompting the transfer during their first year and adjust to their new school, while giving them a season back to complete their eligibility," Amy Huchthausen, commissioner of the America East Conference and chair of the Leadership Council subcommittee said in a release.

The NCAA also acknowledged that the proposed rule change would "reduce concerns about abuse of the waiver process and inconsistency in decisions."

Hardship waivers were barely on the national radar until basketball player Tyler Smith transferred from Iowa to Tennessee to be closer to his father, who was suffering from terminal cancer. He immediately became an all-Southeastern Conference player and helped lead the Volunteers to the Sweet 16.

Though there were clearly legitimate reasons for many players to receive hardship waivers, some coaches became concerned that players were using the process as a loophole to circumvent transfer regulations.

The Div. I Board of Directors will review the proposal on April 24, and the change would begin in 2015-16 if approved. ​