Now that the NCAA has decided for whatever reason to toughen up the criteria on granting waivers do you all think the transfer culture that has permeated throughout Women's college basketball the past 6/7 years will continue? Looking back I feel like the first class now that we were in the amidst of transfer culture was high school class of 2013. It's going to be interesting to see what happens next spring and beyond.
The largest picture is that transfer rate from 4 year colleges to other 4 year colleges has been on the rise since about 2011 and is at about 39.1%. This data also shows that women are transferring at a slightly higher rate than men (40.8 to 37.1 %).
The medium picture is that NCAA athletes are transferring at significantly smaller rate than non-Athletes (39.1 to 12 %).
In the smaller picture of WCBB transfer rates for D1 is about at 19.5% which includes from JUCO ranks and graduate transfers.
UCONN WBB has averaged about 1 transfer (out) per year since 2012 ~ 10%. UCONN has taken in 5 transfers Natalie, Azura, Batouly, Evelyn, & Evina ~ 7%. There was a recent BY thread discussion transfers among the major college programs. If I remember correctly UCONN was kind of middle of the pack in terms of # of transfers and Stanford had the least #s. There was spirited debate about the “quality” of the UCONN transfers vs other programs.
An ESPN article on WCBB transfers from about 2014 concluded that social media was among the root causes for the increase in transfer rates among WCBB players. That article concluded that via social media it has become much easier to find someone who is perceived to be in a better situation than yourself-imagine that? The other root cause was pointed out in
@MSSportsGuy where he says
: “I am not exactly a fan of the transfer culture and think it’s just a reflection on how players now are regularly changing high schools and AAU teams to get more exposure.”
Social media is not going away, the AAU drama & chaos is increasing so I fully expect the transfer rates to continue at current levels or increase.
The NCAA has changed the guidelines for immediate eligibility this summer but I believe it too early to say it has “toughened” the criteria. We are probably too familiar with Evina’s denial and might wrongfully conclude that the NCAA toughened the criteria. I’m not so sure Evina would have qualified under the old guidelines as was suggested in a recent BY post. Because we hate ND, EVERYTHING regarding Shepard’s waiver will be seen a giving ND a solid and an anti-UCONN bias FOR ETERNITY-evidence be dammed.
