Two New Interps on Junior College Transfers
The NCAA published two new interpretations on junior college transfers who want to use the discontinued/nonsponsored sports exception. The first involves athletes who attended multiple junior colleges:
The academic and membership affairs staff confirmed that the discontinued/nonsponsored sport exception is applicable to a situation in which a student-athlete has attended multiple two-year colleges that either dropped the student-athlete’s sport from their intercollegiate programs or never sponsored the sport on the intercollegiate level while the student-athlete was in attendance at the institutions.
Essentially, both colleges have to meet the exception rather than one. That makes sense. Allowing the exception if just one institution did not have the sport would allow an athletes to use the exception to circumvent the normal junior college transfer rules.
The second involves athletes who attempt to use the exception at a school where they earned no credit:
The academic and membership affairs staff confirmed that the discontinued/nonsponsored sport exception to the two-year college transfer residence requirement does not apply in a situation in which the student-athlete did not satisfactorily complete any transferable degree credits at the two-year college.
This also closes a possible loophole, but also makes the discontinued/nonsponsored sport exception stay focused on its purpose. This interpretation now requires that a bare minimum of academic achievement is necessary before using the exception.