Hageman Warns New NCAA Transfer Rules 'Could Essentially Destroy' Entire Programs At Smaller Schools

2 days ago

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) questioned witnesses about NCAA rules, and the impact of new name, image and likeness regulations.

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Transcript

00:00for five minutes. Good morning and thank you for being here. Mr. McIntosh, your

00:05testimony touches on the outside forces that are driving changes in collegiate

00:10sports. As for negative changes, you have identified those to the transfer portal

00:15which allows athletes to now transfer every year and face no ineligibility.

00:21Changes such as those are of great concern to me, representing a less

00:25populated state with smaller schools in Wyoming, which is a member of the

00:30Mountain West Conference, which must compete for recruits and players with

00:35the power of five conferences and all other Division I schools. How have

00:40these changes incentivized or pressured student-athletes to use the transfer

00:44portal more frequently? Thank you, Congresswoman. I think it's a great

00:49question. I think the combination of third-party NIL and permissibility of

00:55unlimited transfers has put our coaches in a really tough position and it's

01:01caused our student-athletes, it's harmed their academic progress. It's created

01:07roster instability, which I think is not fair to teammates on those teams. In

01:13short, it's put us in an extremely unstable environment. I think this is an area in

01:19which we need help. We need help from Congress to be able to create

01:23common-sense rules that would allow student-athletes to transfer for the

01:27right reasons, but also preserve their academic progress towards degree. What

01:33are some of the recommendations that you would make in that regard? I think there

01:38have been many discussions and explorations of possibilities. Concepts

01:44like one transfer permissible on a period of time, like these are areas that

01:49we would explore. I think there is a need for a student-athlete or student-athlete

01:55voice in that discussion. These are the kind of things that we talk to with our

01:59student-athletes. One of the things that I see, again, especially coming from a

02:02state like Wyoming, where we don't have professional sports. Our only sports are

02:07the University of Wyoming and it's incredibly important to the people of

02:11Wyoming that we maintain a competitive basketball team, football team, but we

02:16also have wrestling. We have rodeo and that's something that I don't think

02:19people have talked much about. The impact on rodeo teams of what you're

02:22what you're discussing today, but I can see a circumstance where we might

02:26recruit somebody. Josh Allen went to the University of Wyoming, one of the

02:30greatest football players of all time, and I can see where we would recruit

02:34someone to be the cornerstone of a team, only to have that person lured away by

02:38another school, which would essentially or could essentially destroy the entire

02:42program, at least for that year, if not for a longer period of time. I think that

02:47is a very significant issue that does need to be addressed and I want to

02:52protect the athletes as well, but I think one of the things that we've always done

02:56when we look at college athletics is this gives students an

02:59opportunity to be part of a team after high school, to be part of a track and

03:04field team, to be part of a swim team, to have that experience while at

03:09the same time going to college and getting the degree that is so necessary

03:14for their long-term well-being. Ms. Smith-Gilbert, when we have

03:18these kind of transfer situations, what does that do to a student's ultimate

03:23academic record and their ability to get the degree so that they have the

03:26successes long-term? Because I would assume, I don't know the percentage, but I

03:30would assume it's a very small percentage of people who actually go on

03:34to make this a career, to become professional athletes. So providing that

03:38education, I think, is highly important. What is the ease of

03:43transfer due to the ability to provide that academic experience

03:49that they need? In the sport of track and field, that's a really good

03:54question, Congresswoman. What I'm finding is unlimited transfers, and you have to

04:00understand in track and field, we may have four or five windows of the

04:04transfer portal per year. Cross-country has a window, indoor has a window, outdoor

04:09has a window, so it's never stable. So you may have someone running next this

04:15week at Nationals who may get in the portal on Monday and leave, but they have

04:19to go to school and finish classes, but it's in the middle of the semester. So

04:23they're looking around in the middle of the season to try to see where they can

04:27go, where their credits will transfer. Will they'll be accepted to the next

04:31school? Or what I'm finding is, as much as I push them to get a master's degree, a

04:36lot of times, depending on when they transfer, it's not a viable option

04:41because maybe admissions isn't accepting graduate degrees at that time, or you're

04:47off track. So they end up taking undergraduate classes all for nothing,

04:52just anything, to just be at the new school, and I think that's very

04:56detrimental when they could have had a master's degree. I think it is too. One

05:00other issue, and I'm almost out of time, but I think we also need to talk about

05:04the regulation associated with agents and their access to students, and make

05:10sure that we are protecting the students from what I would consider to be

05:14predators, almost, in the way that they treat our athletes. I don't have time to

05:18go into that, but I very much appreciate you being here and addressing this

05:22complicated subject. With that, I yield back.

05:24Gentlewoman yields back. Now recognize Ranking Member Raskin for unanimous

05:29consent request. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Hageman Warns New NCAA Transfer Rules 'Could Essentially Destroy' Entire Programs At Smaller Schools

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