South Bend, IN, April 2 (AP) NCAA President Mark Emmert announced this afternoon that the much discussed reinstatement rule, sometimes colloquially called the “Ooops! Exemption”, has been approved and will be in force for the coming WBB season. Under this new rule, players and staff who have left a team for personal, academic, legal or health reasons will be allowed to return to their prior team for a single season, without having to sit out a year as is the case for most historical transfers.
Among the immediate beneficiaries are the University of Tennessee, which will add the late Pat Summitt to its coaching staff and the University of Connecticut. The latter will welcome the return of Elena Della Donne, who had previously transferred to Delaware. Courtney Banghart will relinquish her coaching rôle at a New Jersey school to return to Dartmouth. When contacted by a reporter, Banghart characterized her time at Princeton as “an extended sabbatical”.