Greg Sankey evaluates downside to NCAA’s four-game redshirt rule, transfer portal

There are a number of issues that still need to be ironed out in the current era of college football with NIL and the transfer portal. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey tackled one of them in an appearance on The Triple Option podcast, addressing the four-game redshirt rule.

The NCAA made the change to its redshirt guidelines in 2018, permitting players to participate in four or fewer contests without wasting a year of eligibility. It was widely considered to be win at the time, but with NIL going into effect in 2021, Sankey believes it’s time to reevaluate the rule.

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“Anything that’s changed over the last five years is the state level activity to tell us how to run college sports,” he said. “That’s combined with federal litigation outcomes that have forced change. I’ll just go back to something that the NCAA did a few years ago, which is everybody was in love with this four-game redshirt rule. Everybody could play four games and figure it out. Now, you’re seeing they’ve created a deadline. It’s another leverage point in addition to the transfer portal. Should that remain?”

Sankey’s comments come on the heels of an interesting situation at UNLV with quarterback Matthew Sluka. The Holy Cross transfer alleged that the Rebels offered him $100,000 to transfer to Las Vegas this offseason but failed to make good on their end of the deal.

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As a result, he opted to transfer from the program and use his redshirt season after starting the first three games. It’s an example of how the rule, which wasn’t even created with NIL in mind, can be used as an out for players who feel they aren’t getting what they deserve.

Sankey explained that conferences still have some ability to control transfer rules. For example, the SEC only allows players to transfer to team within its own conference during the fall portal window, barring them from doing so in the spring.

Still, both conferences and the NCAA are limited on what they can do, having to follow state laws. Sankey believes the best path toward reaching a solution that benefits both the players and schools is through a federal law.

“We have to deal with litigation, so there’s a settlement that would allow — if it’s approved by the court — some oversight of name, image and likeness activity and some institutional opportunities to provide economic support to student-athletes,” he said. “We still have state laws. We have state attorney generals who have filed some lawsuits that limit transfer regulation and have limited NIL oversight. That puts you into this congressional conversation. Congress is a place where you can set a national standard so we can have Final Fours, College World Series and College Football Playoffs. Without a national standard, I think that’s going to become more difficult.

“Our student-athletes are saying, ‘I just want to know that when I cross the line of scrimmage for somebody, they’re held to the same set of standards I’m held to.’ I think that’s a fair ask. Because some of these stories that we’ve seen over the last few weeks indicate that promises were made that weren’t fulfilled. There’s no protection for a young person in this system. They have no idea the credibility of the so-called ‘agent’ representative. Those are not healthy environments.”

With NIL and the transfer portal still in their infancy, they continue to evolve year by year. The expectation is that a federal law will come soon, and Sankey isn’t the only one who believes federal legislation would be a big help.

Names such as Nick Saban, Brian Kelly and many more have joined him in that push.

“This is not some 60-year-old conference commissioner with gray hair saying, ‘We can’t do it this way. Everybody get off my lawn,'” Sankey said. “We have to change. That change is happening. We have to have a system that defines the right competitive environment. What’s the structure that provides some protection for the participants in a new way and allows us to have national competition?

“…It’s pretty cool when Texas goes up to Ann Arbor and plays a football game. I’ve never been there. I went to the game. That should continue to happen. We want that to happen. But we need that national standard to help that happen.”