KU coach Bill Self says player movement is a ‘problem in college athletics’

College basketball and football coaches are allowed to jump from one school to another without penalty. Players, however, unless they are graduate transfers, must sit out a full season at their transfer destination before being eligible to play in games.

This all could change if the courts in 2017 decide NCAA transfer rules violate federal antitrust laws.

“An undergraduate football player (former Northern Illinois punter Peter Deppe) has filed a lawsuit challenging that NCAA rule that requires an undergraduate transfer to fulfill a one-year residence requirement at the institution he transfers to before he is eligible to compete. My understanding at this time is the case will be heard early in 2017. The NCAA is prepared to vigorously defend the present rule,” National Association of Basketball Coaches executive director Jim Haney said at nabc.com.

“The term ‘free agency’ is being applied to the potential recruiting landscape if the court rules in favor of the student-athlete. The result would mean any student-athlete in men’s basketball or football that transfers would be immediately eligible. One can envision student-athletes transferring in huge numbers looking for a better playing situation: more playing time, more television exposure, better role on the team, etc.,” Haney added. “College coaches would be actively recruiting players competing on other teams during the collegiate basketball season. The negative implications on team APR and graduation success could be monumental based on how many student-athletes transfer from your team in any give year. The number of teams ineligible to compete in the NCAA Championship would be significant and the institutions not eligible could be equally significant.”

Haney said up to 700 men’s basketball players transferred this past offseason. That includes current KU players Malik Newman (from Mississippi State) and Evan Maxwell (from Liberty) who can practice this year but not play in games until 2017-18.

KU coach Bill Self said he’d like a system in which there are fewer transfers.

“Well, it’s affecting college basketball,” Self said at last week’s KU basketball media day when asked about all the player movement.

“There’s a lot of things with transferring that’s positive, such as if a youngster wants to play and it’s not set up for him to play at that place. Sometimes a change of scenery is good. (Also) if you have a different academic program you want to pursue, if there’s health issues with a family member close to home. There’s a lot of things like that.

“But what has become so negative isn’t coaches running off players. What’s become negative is that whenever things don’t go the way you have it scripted in your mind, the first thing you want to do a lot of times is switch locations because that will solve the problem,” Self continued. “It’s the same principle. You’re enrolled in a hard class and you take your first test and you do poorly on your first test. The first thing you want to do is drop the class, as opposed to meeting with the teacher (and say) ‘OK, how do I make this up?’ You know you’ve got to grind. I think there’s so much impatience out there because we’re an immediate-satisfaction society right now, that sometimes players don’t understand that the grind is actually what may make them as a player and what may make them as a person over time.”

Self said the great number of transfers is “a big-time problem in college basketball. I think it’s a problem in college athletics. I also think it’s a societal problem because how many kids now if you don’t play on your high school team, what’s the first thing you do? You switch schools. If you don’t like the offense — you’re a quarterback and you’re second string and a sophomore beats you out and you’re a junior, what do you do? You go to another school. So it’s not just basketball. It is a problem, and in basketball with the fifth-year senior situation becoming — the graduate transfer becoming eligible immediately. We’ve benefited from that with Tarik (Black who transferred from Memphis armed with his degree thus was immediately eligible in 2013-14), obviously, but 100 percent of all coaches would say that’s a very, very bad rule because it puts you in a position where, depending on your situation where you could actually look to recruit kids off somebody else’s campus, and that per se is not legal, but through third parties obviously there can be contact made and things like that.

“We’d like for it to be tightened up where there’s less transfers and hopefully that will be the case, but I don’t know if there’s an immediate answer for that.”

White was popular graduate transfer

Former Kansas guard/forward Andrew White heard from approximately 60 schools last summer after announcing plans to leave Nebraska as a graduate-transfer with one year of eligibility remaining. He ultimately decided on Syracuse.

“I didn’t think I was going to have many options just because of how late it was. I thought there was a certain stigma on me coming out of Nebraska. I thought I might be seen as damaged goods,” White told Syracuse.com. “I thought I’d have three or four mid-major schools and I’d just pick one and go on and be happy.’’

The 6-foot-7 White — he averaged 16.6 points and 5.9 rebounds at NU last season — was recruited heavily by Michigan State and Miami, but those two schools eventually dropped out of the running as August neared. The Richmond, Va., native, who played two seasons at KU and one at NU, chose Syracuse over VCU on Aug. 28.

“Every time I told him ‘Coach (Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim), I’ve got another visit, just work with me,’ he’d say ‘You go have fun. We know this is the place for you. You do what you’ve got to do. We’ll catch up with you.’ He doesn’t rush. He doesn’t panic. He was very calm,’’ White told Syracuse.com. “I appreciated that because it did take me a while to gather my thoughts and figure out what I wanted to do.’ I tested their commitment. They stuck with me. They were committed to me.”

KU listed at 10/1 to win NCAA title

Kansas has been issued 10/1 odds to win the 2017 NCAA title, according to betting service Bovada. Duke faces odds of 4/1, followed by Kentucky, 15/2. Villanova, like KU, is a 10/1 bet. KU’s Josh Jackson has been accorded 14/1 odds for AP national player of the year. Duke’s Grayson Allen is the favorite at 6/1.

Vegasinsider.com has Duke with 19/5 odds, Kentucky at 8/1 and KU at 12/1 to win it all.　

CBSsports.com ranks KU third

CBSsports.com’s Gary Parrish has KU ranked No. 3 in his most recent preseason poll. Duke is No. 1 and Kentucky No. 2.

“The Jayhawks will likely have a one-and-done player for the fifth straight season thanks to the enrollment of Josh Jackson, whom 247Sports ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2016. Barring a surprise, Bill Self will win his 13th consecutive Big 12 title this season,” Parrish wrote at the website.

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 8:02 PM with the headline "KU coach Bill Self says player movement is a ‘problem in college athletics’."