NCAA Struggling to Uphold Transfer Portal Rules

If it were up to FBS coaches, the transfer portal window would be a 10-day period in January, but even that sentiment may become obsolete.

It’s no secret that the NCAA is struggling to maintain its control over college athletics, especially college football, but it’s gotten worse and worse over the last few months — last few years, really.

Another low was reached on Friday when Wisconsin cornerback Xavier Lucas left for Miami, despite the Badgers refusing to enter him into the transfer portal.

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, Lucas withdrew from classes at Wisconsin and enrolled at Miami, and since he hasn’t officially signed with the Hurricanes, he’s skirted NCAA transfer rules. For now, he’s avoided any legal filings. But those will come.

Dellenger further reported that Lucas signed a revenue-sharing agreement with Wisconsin, a two-year deal that allows a school to exclusively use and market a player’s name, image and likeness.

So, while Lucas has seemingly “escaped” Wisconsin, who didn’t want to let him go, there appears to be a lengthy legal battle in the future. Just the latest legal battle for the NCAA.

The situation between Lucas and Wisconsin raises the question as to whether the NCAA is able to enforce any sort of transfer rules.

“NCAA rules do not prevent a student-athlete from unenrolling from an institution, enrolling at a new institution and competing immediately,” the NCAA said in a statement to Yahoo! Sports.

As it stands, a player must enter the transfer portal during a designation transfer portal window in order to connect with coaches from new schools. It is not permitted for schools to communicate with players who are not in the portal. But the Lucas case could set a ground-breaking precedence.

It’s a fluid situation, as revenue sharing in college athletics is still dependent on a settlement between the NCAA and the House in April, but it’s expected to begin on July 1 — up to $20.5 million.

It’s the end of the NCAA’s amateurism model, as players will be directly compensated by their respective schools, but it doesn’t stop there. The long-term impact includes scholarship and roster changes and a new way NIL will be implemented. And even the distribution is dependent on Title IX guidelines from the Department of Education.

The NCAA, in conjunction with the four Power commissioners (plus the Pac-12), released a statement last year.

“The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come. This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students. All of Division I made today’s progress possible, and we all have work to do to implement the terms of the agreement as the legal process continues. We look forward to working with our various student-athlete leadership groups to write the next chapter of college sports.”

Pitt, like every program in college athletics, has had to adjust to NIL and its consequences. The university has bought into Alliance 412Alliance 412, the preferred NIL collective, and Pat Narduzzi has voiced his support revenue sharing.

“I think it’s a great thing that the universities are now going to start to take this over,” Narduzzi said last year. “Obviously there’s a lot of things to still work out, we’re not going to get into the meetings on that today, but that’s the settlement. Players in the past, 10 years ago, are going to get paid back, I guess, and we’re gonna pay our current players. We’re gonna let everything work through — I’m gonna worry about winning football games and we’ll worry about (revenue sharing) in ’25.”