South Carolina Football: NCAA sends out new transfer portal rules memo

South Carolina football, basketball, and baseball have all utilized the transfer portal to reshape their rosters. With the wild, wild west of the current portal culture, “rules” and “guidelines” aren’t exceptionally clear, and, even when they are, they seem to be more like suggestions than true mandates. It appears, however, that some of that is about to change. College basketball analyst Jon Rothstein shared a memo from the NCAA that shows some supposed new rules regarding players who wish to transfer twice.

The information in the memo is set to be applicable for any second-time transfer waiver appeal for the 2023-2024 athletic year and beyond.

Second-time transfers have always required an NCAA waiver for the player to become immediately eligible, but this memo appears to allow for significant amounts of subjectivity in that waiver process. “Mental health” is a real aspect of health, but it is also incredibly difficult to evaluate from the outside. How the NCAA will determine what issue is “related to the student athlete’s physical or mental health and well-being” is unclear. “Exigent circumstances” also is not an objective standard.

As this pertains to the Gamecocks, there was some offseason chatter about at least one former South Carolina football player looking to return to the university after transferring earlier in the offseason.

Jordan Burch left the program for Oregon shortly after the Gator Bowl, but there were reports from all over the Gamecock online ecosystem that the former 5-star is at least interested in returning home to Columbia. Burch being a Columbia native and a player at a position of need for South Carolina made these rumors a popular talking point among fans. As it turned out, Burch did not enter his name into the transfer portal before the spring window closed, so now, he would have to graduate in order to transfer.

Former Gamecock wide receiver Corey Rucker transferred back to Arkansas State as an undergrad student and was granted his immediate eligibility despite being a two-time transfer.

In basketball, former Gamecock Trae Hannibal transferred to Murray State and then transferred again to LSU when Murray State coach Matt McMahon left for Baton Rouge. He was granted immediate eligibility because of the coaching change, which goes directly against what the NCAA says regarding what makes a two-time transfer eligible.

There are some other non-graduate players in the portal who are looking to transfer for the second time, especially in basketball, and it will be interesting to see how the NCAA will handle these waiver requests.