The date is May 24, 2011. The venue is Nakoma Golf Club in Madison, Wis.
Bret Bielema steps away from his ball to take a phone call. He pumps his fist. It won’t become official for another month, but he has just reeled in a quarterback who will break the single-season NCAA record for passing efficiency — Russell Wilson.
North Carolina State coaches have tired of Wilson’s baseball jones and want to elevate Mike Glennon. So Wilson takes advantage of an NCAA rule adopted in 2006 that gives a transfer immediate eligibility if he has earned his degree and seeks a graduate degree in a major not offered by his current school.
For Bielema, who won’t have to choose between underwhelming quarterbacks Jon Budmayr and Curt Phillips, it’s a day of joy.
Bo Ryan doesn’t share that sentiment. The Badgers basketball coach is venting over the news that high-scoring shooting guard Brandon Wood will be immediately eligible after earning his undergraduate degree from Valparaiso. His destination: Michigan State.
On March 10, 2012, the Spartans take out Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament. Wood is hardly the reason, but he does play 35 minutes and score nine points.
There you have it: Not everyone embraces the graduate-transfer rule.
And it goes deeper than winning and losing games. And winning and losing players.
‘What’s best for the kids’
Pass a well-meaning rule, and schools will find a way to bend it.
According to NCAA data, only 32 percent of basketball players taking advantage of the graduate-transfer rule in 2011-12 actually earned a graduate degree. In football, the figure was even lower: 24 percent.
“The intent of the rule is not the true practice of the rule,” said Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, adding he takes only transfers who have a “full intention” of earning their degree.
Quinn Evans bolstered the NU secondary in 2012 after transferring from Stanford.
The Wildcats’ only other fifth-year transfer also doesn’t qualify as a ringer. Receiver Garrett Kidd joined the 2015 team last month after making two catches — and earning a finance degree — at Miami. His father, John, was an All-America punter at Northwestern.
“We’ve had guys reach out and say, ‘I’m interested in transferring for my fifth year,'” Fitzgerald said. “I tell them, ‘OK, great, you have to go through the graduate admissions process.’ That conversation did not continue. As the coach, it tells me exactly what I need to know.”
The rule essentially allows players who graduate with remaining eligibility to become free agents. Most believe that’s a good thing.
“You go to school to get a degree,” said Notre Dame linebacker Joe Schmidt, who said it was a no-brainer to remain in South Bend as a grad student. “Once you have done your four years of service and you get a degree, you have put in your time.”
Indiana coach Kevin Wilson has qualms about a player who “almost becomes his own agent, reading the waiver wire: ‘Hey, that quarterback got in trouble. Let’s go there.'”
“But then you have the player-welfare argument: doing what’s best for the kids,” Wilson said. “It’s one reason I like playing freshmen. The day of five-year football is kind of gone.”
‘Cruel and unusual’
The NCAA keeps track only of transfers who request a waiver to play immediately, not those who already have graduated. Several Big Ten players fall into the latter category.
*Kevin Reihner will look to bolster Penn State’s offensive line. The Scranton, Pa., native graduated from Stanford.
*Daxx Garman is competing with Caleb Rowe to be Maryland’s starting quarterback. Garman started eight games for Oklahoma State last season but suffered a concussion and lost the job.
*Quarterback Jake Rudock left Iowa after coaches demoted him following the 2014 season, preferring C.J. Beathard. Rudock wisely turned to Michigan, where he can learn from quarterback guru Jim Harbaugh and could beat out Shane Morris for the starting job.
No surprise, Harbaugh lauded the rule, saying if regular students can go elsewhere for their graduate work, “I don’t think football players should be restricted.”
Rudock could be an ideal quarterback to get Michigan back to respectability because of his reliability and low-risk style. He completed more than 61.7 percent of his passes last season at Iowa with 16 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
And as ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit pointed out, Rudock and Morris should be on equal footing with a new coaching staff.
Contrast that with former Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson, who is trying to beat out Jameis Winston’s two-year backup, Sean Maguire, at Florida State.
At least Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher can relate, having transferred from Salem in West Virginia to Samford in Alabama for his final season as a college quarterback in 1987.
The Southeastern Conference instituted a graduate-transfer ban after quarterback Jeremiah Masoli got kicked out of Oregon in 2010 and landed at Mississippi, where he enrolled in a parks and recreation graduate program. The SEC thereafter required a waiver unless a transfer had two or more years of eligibility.
But the SEC changed that policy in May, adding that the player must make progress toward a graduate degree. If he does not, the university won’t be able to apply the grad-student exception in that athlete’s sport for three years.
A wise solution, no doubt.
Stanford coach David Shaw has lost many graduate students to other schools, including Reihner, tailback Kelsey Young (Boise State), fullback Patrick Skov (Georgia Tech) and tight end Charlie Hopkins (Virginia).
“I’d love to have those guys back,” Shaw told USA Today. “But then I look at it and say, ‘You know what? Would those guys be in position to where they’re kind of rotating in with us?’ If they have a chance to go be ‘the guy’ someplace else, they’ve done their part for me, for Stanford University.
“They’ve played their tails off, they’ve stayed the course with school. You graduate from college in four years? No one should be able to tell you that you can’t go someplace else to play a fifth year.
“If they change this rule so now I can force a kid to stay with me and be my backup, I think that’s just cruel and unusual.”
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein
Old faces in new places
The trend toward more graduate-student transfers is especially pronounced at quarterback. Here’s a look at some prominent passers who made a quick change for this season:
Everett Golson, Florida State: After taking Notre Dame to the national title game in 2012, sitting out 2013 for an academic suspension and losing his starting job late in the 2014 season, the South Carolina native headed south to compete for Jameis Winston’s old job.
Vernon Adams, Oregon: A two-time runner-up for the Walter Payton Award (FCS player of the year) at Eastern Washington, Adams was named Friday as the Ducks starter, succeeding Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota.
Jake Rudock, Michigan: Supplanted by C.J. Beathard at Iowa, Rudock is expected to earn the starting job for the Wolverines over Shane Morris.
Daxx Garman, Maryland: The Terrapins are Garman’s third team in five years after redshirting at Arizona and spending three seasons at Oklahoma State.
Jeff Driskel, Louisiana Tech: The former five-star recruit had a beleaguered career at Florida. Now he has one more chance to live up to his billing.
Greyson Lambert, Georgia: Having lost his starting job at Virginia, Lambert joined the Bulldogs with two years of eligibility and is competing with Brice Ramsey for the No. 1 job.
Nathan Peterman, Pittsburgh: He made two starts at Tennessee before falling behind Josh Dobbs; he enters 2015 as the Panthers’ backup to Chad Voytik.
