For several years now, players transferring and being eligible to play right away when citing an ill relative has become very commonplace. It’s getting to the point where a player not seeking a waiver to play right away for such a reason is almost a surprise. While many have said this is getting out of hand, one has to wonder if the case of Isaac Hamilton and UTEP might be the last straw before legislative action gets taken, as this particular case is sure to be interesting to follow.
News broke recently that Hamilton, younger brother of former Texas forward Jordan and former Miami forward Gary, plans not to attend UTEP, where he signed a National Letter of Intent. Hamilton wants a release, but will not get one. This is not new, but UTEP head coach Tim Floyd has alleged that tampering has taken place, which will thicken the plot – and one can figure that Hamilton will probably want a waiver to play right away.
Citing a sick grandmother, Hamilton isn’t the first player to want to go closer to home to be near an ailing relative and won’t be the last. But there’s a curious thing here: if the intent is to be closer to a relative so as to care for them or at least have more quality time while they are still with us, isn’t that a reason to sit out a year? Wouldn’t the player be able to spend more time with and caring for the relative without the game schedule to worry about?
There are plenty who have no problem with this. One rationale sure to be floated around is the fashionable point that coaches can leave at any time but players have to sit a year. Players can still transfer, but their situation is fundamentally different from that of the coaches. Coaches are professionals who work on contracts; those contracts can be terminated and also often have buyouts. In fact, one recent story in the news was that of Bradley head coach Geno Ford having to pay a $1.2 million settlement from when he left before his contract was up. Players don’t have to worry about buyouts or other things that might be in the contract such as a home-and-home series against the school they leave.
UTEP head coach Tim Floyd noted in media reports the rationale for not releasing Hamilton, and it makes sense from that standpoint. The Miners’ staff invested a lot of time and money in recruiting him and built a schedule for this season around the idea that he would be part of their team. Season ticket sales were helped by this, and according to reports, some are asking for money back in the event he does not play there. So while some might think Floyd should take a PR hit for doing this, they need to put themselves in his shoes first.
The transfer waivers are generally a bad idea, especially when added to the graduate transfer rule that is leading a number of players to play their final season at another school. They make sense for rare circumstances like postseason bans when a player is a senior, as was the case for former Connecticut and Missouri forward Alex Oriakhi or players who were at Baylor when the program got into major trouble, but other than that it seems to be getting out of hand. With precedent established, it seems like every other transfer is getting a waiver, and the high transfer rate has been well-documented.
Some will say that the year-in-residence rule should just go away entirely and that all of this demonstrates that. But if that is the endgame, it would be bad for college basketball. If players were able to freely transfer without having to sit a year, there would be attempts to poach the best mid-major players left and right. If you don’t think this is the case, just look at how many of the one-year transfers have been instances of “transferring up,” in addition to the multi-year transfers who are doing that in recent times. There’s a lot more going on than simply players looking for more playing time or a better situation, and there are plenty of good reasons for the year-in-residence in the case of transfers as well.
The NCAA has gone too far with waivers to simply dial it back a bit. Instead, the best thing they could do about this is simply end the waivers save for well-defined exceptional circumstances, such as a player’s school being banned from the postseason for the remainder of their eligibility. Simply ending the waivers altogether isn’t an option, but continuing on the current path with them is not a good idea, either.
True free agency is for professionals. College basketball players are not professionals.
