I didn’t know this was a thing, but leave it to FBS coaches to find and use any loopholes they can.
The NCAA D1 Cabinet adopted some pretty harsh new rules to curb any school, program, or coach attempting to add and subsequently play a player who did not go through the portal process as a transfer.
On Wednesday, the Division I Cabinet adopted a proposal that penalizes programs that sign a transfer student-athlete, add a transfer student-athlete to a roster, or allow a transfer student-athlete to participate in athletically related activities before the student-athlete is entered into the NCAA Transfer
Portal.
Penalties — which are automatically triggered — include a suspension of the respective sport’s head coach for 50% of a season and a fine of 20% of that sport’s budget.
…
“This change addresses gaps in the transfer and tampering policies that have allowed for abuse, but we acknowledge that there is more work to do,” said Josh Whitman, chair of the Cabinet and athletics director at Illinois. “Thanks to the new, more streamlined structure for Division I decision-making, we were able to take a good idea that originated with practitioners, vet it and approve it, all in a matter of weeks. We believe closing this loophole simplifies things for student-athletes and holds schools accountable for their actions.”
The penalties are steep, but this feels like the NCAA and its governors are attempting to find some ways to control what has seemed out of control. I’m not sure if this is going to fix the ghost transferring, from Ross Dellenger’s article previewing these possible changes from back in February:
The penalties may serve as deterrents for schools that wish to enhance their rosters with players from other schools after spring practice by partaking in what is described as “blind transferring” — when a player unenrolls at one school and enrolls at another outside of the portal window. The 15-day portal window in January is meant to be the only route in which players can communicate with coaches from another school without university staff members violating the NCAA’s tampering bylaws.
All of this is weird and hard because of how tight the football schedule is currently. From mid-January Championship games, to a transfer window that’s now just two weeks because school starts and players have to be enrolled. And then spring practice. Basically they’re trying to kill the post-spring practice transfers.
I don’t know, man. Good luck.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
Kicking things off with football feels appropriate, Nathan wrote about Mizzou landing in the 20th spot in Bill C’s SP+ rankings from ESPN:
Rock M Nation godfather and current ESPN writer and analyst Bill Connelly just released his first batch of SP+ ratings for the 2026 season and the Tigers clock in at No. 20 nationally.
To be honest, there are few bigger Mizzou homers than myself, but when I saw the Tigers check in as highly as they did in BillC’s first batch, my first reaction was… slightly dubious.
Any preseason rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, but I can see the argument here. It’s important to remember we often don’t pay attention to roster attrition around the country like we do our own team, but Missouri has an intriguing roster. And while 20th might seem aggressive right now, I can see it. The Tigers have performed well over the last three seasons, and program stability helps. They’ve also added some real talent on offense. The schedule is difficult, but I could see them being a surprise team.
- Mizzou Softball dropped a game to LSU when the offense failed to show up, and LSU was able to tack on some late runs, from Dylan:
Mizzou struggled with runners in scoring position, finishing 0-6 while leaving nine runners stranded. By comparison LSU finished the game 6-7 with runners in scoring position, taking advantage of every runner.
“We need to bear down when we have those opportunities and not let them pass by,” head coach Larissa Anderson said.
The Tigers couldn’t break past LSU pitcher Jayden Heavener, who sat down Mizzou with 11 strikeouts in a complete game performance.
Cierra Harrison will be credited with the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits while striking out four in 5.0 innings.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 20-19 and ceased a 5 game winning streak. They head back to it again today.
- Who doesn’t want to spend a heap of time in Baton Rouge while outside and performing in track and field events? Sophie previewed the meet:
Friday’s action starts with the women’s hammer throw at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men’s hammer throw and other afternoon events, including pole vault and javelin. Evening field events begin at 5:00 p.m., alongside running events that kick off with the 400-meter hurdles. The night continues with the 200 meters, steeplechase, 1,500 meters and concludes with the 5,000 meters.
On Saturday, field events start at 10:30 a.m. with discus and shot put, followed by high jump and triple jump. Running events begin late in the morning with relays and the 800 meters. The events continue with hurdles, sprints and finish with the 4×400-meter relays in the afternoon.
Maybe the event of the day is the start of the Regional Semi-Finals for Gymnastics, the ladies are in Lexington today. You can watch on ESPN+ and stay tuned for all the coverage here from Karen and team.
- OVER ON ROCK M+ we talked about Trent Burns and his potential impact next season.
- We’ve also reached 17 pages of transfer portal discussion.
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