The announcement came during the Securities and Exchange Commission’s media days as the slogan “This Means More” took on new meaning.

Tennessee coach Josh Hubble said after Thursday’s first hearing that the NCAA only allowed athletes to move an unlimited number of times, “Surprised about that? Totally surprised by that.” “I think that only adds to the madness in the transfer window.”

This was the first reaction to the NCAA announcement that The Council of the First Division has recommended the abolition of restrictions on the transfer of players several times. The NCAA Board of Directors is expected to endorse the recommendation on August 3.

The news doesn’t come until a year after the NCAA’s new watered down rules for one-time transfers.

Fun fact: the world isn’t over yet. Athletes look more like students who are able to move around in their spare time. The coaches have also been modified. For the next two years on a trial basis, the programs will be able to sign an unlimited number of players during signing periods as long as they do not exceed the annual limit of 85 players for scholarships.

It was all a look at the slow implementation of the NCAA’s deregulation. Big Brother would be less involved in such matters, not more, in the future. But if coaches thought they had issues with the one-time transition rule, the weather went wild and wild west on steroids—with an asterisk.

Because of the academic requirements involved, it will be difficult to transfer more than once as an undergraduate. Incoming transfers must be financial aid secured for five years of eligibility.

“It is likely that one, maybe two, transfers will be very manageable,” a source involved in the council’s process said. “Going into multiple transfers it gets tougher and more difficult.”

Transfer graduate students are currently allowed to make the maximum number of transfers allowed without a waiver of two. Lifting the restrictions initially caused coaches’ heads to spin. Yes, it is now at least possible for an athlete to play in four different schools in four different years.

“A kid can go as many times as he wants and doesn’t have to graduate? Wow,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher told CBS Sports. “It is just an open recruitment of players [by other schools]. Everyone can recruit [them]. That’s what they do with third parties anyway, with proxies. Agents come in and say, “I can get you a better deal here.” “

The legislation was expected and surprising. The administrators who watched the NCAA’s grip on the amateur slip were not shocked. We’re seeing in real time the ruthlessly slow move from the NCAA toward a professional model. Latest example: On Friday, CBS Sports reported that The Big Ten has received a request that players receive a share of the proceeds from media rights.

“People have to realize that, yes, you can have someone play for four teams, four different years,” said David Redpath, an Ohio State professor and advocate for players’ rights. “At the end of the day, it’s their right until the NCAA wants to sit down and collectively negotiate restrictions with the athlete. There’s no other way forward now.”

Next month, the NCAA’s Transition Committee is expected to announce moves that would allow conferences and divisions to set some of their own rules. There is already a concern that the Big Ten and the SEC will monopolize the money, power, influence and championships in college football – at least.

After implementing the one-time transfer rule last year, coaches cried that free agency had begun. Players can transition twice in their career, once as a college student and once as a graduate. NIL added to the confusion as several coaches told CBS Sports recruits and current players on the roster are looking for NIL’s best deals.

“To say now that you can transfer without penalty would be a disaster…,” said attorney Tom Mars, who has worked on several high-profile exemption requests cases. “Since I have been such a strong leader for the rights of collegiate athletes, I never expected that they would go that far.”

Just this week, the NCAA chronicled the scene that arose around the gate and the one-off transfer base. Those undergraduates who wanted a transfer more than once only applied to the NCAA for a waiver citing extenuating circumstances. All too often, the NCAA granted those concessions knowing, in the end, that it didn’t want to face a lawsuit.

“Usually the second transfer [granted] Anyway just for that reason, Redpath said. “It is difficult to transfer twice to meet academic requirements either at the institutional, conference or NCAA level. But it is not impossible though. It is conceivable that anyone could [transfer as many times as he/she wanted]. “

Mars essentially created that climate four years ago when Ole Miss and NCAA attorneys took to the cleaners to get a waiver from Rebels quarterback Shea Patterson to move to Michigan.

In 2019, Mars announced that it had given up accepting waiver request cases due to overwhelming demand.

“The residence law should have been changed for a year because coaches are abusing it,” Mars said. “But when historians look at this, if the NCAA had dealt with the NIL when they should, they would not have been forced into a corner…

“Maybe this heralds the end of the NCAA,” he added.