ACC Changed Transfer Rules

[OrangeXtreme]

Transferring within the ACC? It’s a lot easier than it used to be.

Football player Bryce Watts is going from one ACC school (Virginia Tech) to another (UNC). That would have been difficult under the old transfer rules but not anymore. The league changed the rules in February.

www.newsobserver.com

Bryce Watts, a football player at Virginia Tech last season, announced his decision to transfer to North Carolina on Sunday.

Under the old transfer rules, that would have been a problem for Watts.

Under the new transfer rules, that’s not a problem for the cornerback who started 12 games as a sophomore for the Hokies. He has to sit out the 2019 season and will have two seasons of eligibility left with the Tar Heels.

The ACC, with similar rules to other “Power 5” conferences, would previously have docked Watts a year of eligibility for staying within the conference. And during the year Watts had to sit out, he would not have been eligible to receive a scholarship from UNC. He would have had to pay his own way until he was eligible in 2020.

But the ACC in February followed the NCAA’s lead and softened its hard-line stance on undergraduate transfers. Last summer, the NCAA changed its transfer rules, notably with the creation of the “transfer portal.”

That significant change was adopted by the NCAA last October. Four months later, the ACC also changed its rules for undergraduate transfers within the conference and did away with the restrictive parameters. The schools approved the changes but there was no public announcement of the decision.