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The muddy waters of quick degrees and graduate transfers
Published 6:00 pm Sunday, June 10, 2018
<p class="indent">For those of us who, shall we say, took the scenic route through that twisting maze of college credits and the social obstacle course along the way, the idea of graduating in anything less than a decade or so seems as fool-hardy as it is unfathomable.</p><p class="indent">Yet it’s happening all the time, mostly, it seems, to football players.</p><p class="indent">These insta-degrees seem to be motivated by the desire to transfer, to another school, which it turns out is far easier with a degree in hand and some eligibility remaining.</p><p class="indent">A guy gets goo-goo eyes and an inkling to go somewhere else and, voila, suddenly he whips out a degree after staying two and a half, maybe three years on campus, sometimes seemingly after a 20-minute toe-tap.</p><p class="indent">When do they ever sleep?</p><p class="indent">I’m guessing few of those degrees involve anything resembling microbiology or Chinese arithmetic.</p><p class="indent">But that degree opens up a lot of doors, not so much in the real working world, but at another school to continue advanced footballing without having to sit out a season.</p><p class="indent">Take Joe Burrow, the Ohio State graduate transfer who’s the latest hopeful answer to LSU’s chronic quarterback woes.</p><p class="indent">He breezed through The Ohio State University’s academic minefield in three years and is now a Tiger pursuing graduate work and open wide receivers at Louisiana State University.</p><p class="indent">He’s free to join the LSU quarterback competition immediately.</p><p class="indent">Without the degree, he could have still transferred but he’d have had to sit out a season (as Danny Etling did when he came in from Purdue).</p><p class="indent">It seems to be THE big topic for this offseason of college football.</p><p class="indent">Burrow came from Ohio State. No problem.</p><p class="indent">If he’d come from, say, Alabama, he’d have needed the permission of Nick Saban and a waiver from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for immediate eligibility with another conference school.</p><p class="indent">SEC coaches could also block players from transferring to specific non-conference schools.</p><p class="indent">Of course, that was last month.</p><p class="indent">Saban thought it was a good rule — so of course the suspicious other coaches in the league changed it at the recent SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. (LSU’s Ed Orgeron was also in favor in leaving things alone).</p><p class="indent">Henceforth, graduate-transfers are free to move about the country as they please, without regard to conference.</p><p class="indent">That’s a good start — and finish.</p><p class="indent">“If we make rule that guys can transfer whenever they want to, how are we supposed to get people to do what they should do?” Saban said in Destin before the new rule was passed. “I’m not talking just as football players, I’m talking about making good decisions and choices off the field. I’m talking about doing the right things academically.</p><p class="indent">“So, if a guy is missing class and I say ‘You’re not playing in this game’ — which I’ve done — then he just says ‘I’ll transfer.’ Is that good or bad?”</p><p class="indent">What it is is an extreme example, cited by a well-known control freak.</p><p class="indent">Actually, the no-stringsattached graduate transfer seems like a good compromise to the question.</p><p class="indent">Just tread carefully — and hold the line right there.</p><p class="indent">Some rabble-rousers, of course, won’t be happy until every player, degree or not, is free to transfer on a whim anywhere he wants whenever he wants.</p><p class="indent">Seems to fit with the Constitution. It’s a free country, right? They’ll claim to have the players’ best interests at heart.</p><p class="indent">Well, it would also be anarchy.</p><p class="indent">If there wasn’t a mandatory year to sit out after transferring, in effect, college recruiting — the bane of this great nation — would never stop.</p><p class="indent">Yes, you would have the rule that no school may approach a player until after he has announced he’s leaving his current school.</p><p class="indent">Riiiiight.</p><p class="indent">But we all know how effectively that would work out. Coaches would work their way around it or at least push the envelope beyond recognition.</p><p class="indent">Worst case, the mid-majors, in particular, might become nothing more than feeder schools for the power programs.</p><p class="indent">There’s a group called the NCAA transferworking group diving into the issue, ready to make a recommendation this month. Reportedly it will stop short of legislating unlimited transfers (without degrees).</p><p class="indent">Which is as it should be.</p><p class="indent">But the graduate-transfer is another matter. An inordinate number of them seem to be quarterbacks stuck in the middle of a depth chart, so they get a lot of attention.</p><p class="indent">But the graduate-transfers are still relatively rare.</p><p class="indent">Don’t ask me, of all people, how they do it. But if a college football player can produce a viable, fast-tracked degree with football eligibility remaining, then that seems to be upholding the ideal of education that the NCAA likes to pay lip service to.</p><p class="indent">He’s done what he claimed to be going to college for.</p><p class="indent">For those few, they’ve earned their freedom.</p><p class="indent">Why not reward them for it? Seems fair. The NCAA would be sending the right message.</p><p class="indent"> </p>
Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com