Iowa's Gary Barta would repeal one-time transfer rule to 'slow down' college roster movement

Thirteen months ago, the NCAA passed a groundbreaking rule that gave college athletes the ability to transfer to a new school one time without having to sit out a year of competition.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta is pursuing efforts to peel back that rule, in an effort to curtail the chaos he sees happening in the college transfer market combined with high-dollar name, image and likeness (NIL) deals that are occurring nationwide.

“NIL … is a good thing. And actually, that part of it is going well on our campus,” Barta told broadcaster Gary Dolphin on the university’s “Fight for Iowa” podcast that was released Thursday. “But what has happened is it is now being used for recruiting inducements. That was never intended. It still is against the rules, but it’s blatantly being abused.”

Barta met with other NCAA powerbrokers recently in Scottsdale, Arizona, to work on charting the course for college athletics.

Repealing the one-time transfer permit wouldn’t affect incoming freshmen’s ability to score a big NIL deal. But, in Barta’s opinion, doing so would help stabilize the wild roster movement that is taking place on a lot of major-college campuses.

“You don’t have to lose your scholarship. But you must sit out a year. Because we can control that,” Barta said. “And that I think would slow down the (NIL) deals, because a booster isn’t going to offer a student-athlete a big sum of money if they know they have to sit out a year.”