Penn State Football: Franklin Sees Graduate Transfer Rule As Challenge, Barbour Critical Of Its Application

WILKES-BARRE, Pa.- Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour opted not to attend the Big Ten athletic director’s meetings this past week in order to continue to introduce herself to Penn State fans on the Coaches Caravan tour.

Despite missing out on the meetings, Barbour still sides with her conference colleagues on the issue of the graduate transfer rulings, perhaps one of the most discussed topics across college athletics this spring.

Like many rules, the original intentions were legitimate, but the application has opened the door for loopholes and situations that were never intended. Most recently, former Notre Dame quarterback and now graduate Everett Golson transferred to Florida State, a move that will help the Seminoles play at a high level once again in 2015. It’s legal, but the motivations behind such a move could stray far from academics.

Barbour and her fellow Big Ten administrators aren’t against student athletes transferring, but using the rule as a means to improve a team’s roster wasn’t the intention. This is especially true if the transferring player simply takes meaningless classes to fulfill the rules requirements and not to finish a meaningful post graduate program.

“It was originally put in place because of students to have an opportunity to go to an institution where their current institution did not offer their graduate program,” Barbour said on Thursday evening. “So they had graduated in three years or four years and had another year of eligibility and there was an actual educational issue with them coming to an institution.” 

“Unfortunately what we have seen is that’s not what it’s used for,” She added. “It has been used as loophole and I find that problematic.”

It’s an issue that James Franklin is watching closely as well. In a perfect world, Franklin wants to graduate players in three to three-and-a-half-years. The reasoning: to allow players to pursue the NFL Draft with a college degree in hand, or to allow them to finish a masters or a second degree before their eligibility expires.

But there is a danger in that plan. In a hypothetical world Christian Hackenberg could graduate with a degree from Penn State and opt to transfer to a college that offered a major he wanted that Penn State did not offer. The result would be immediate eligibility at a program likely in better shape than Penn State. Taking classes would be a formality.

In all likelihood Penn State doesn’t become a program that churns out graduate transfers year after year. But it’s something Franklin has to be prepared for when it comes to maintaining roster stability. Even if it happens very infrequently, the few times it could happen has the potential to change to upcoming seasons of two different programs.

“We’re hoping that these guys are here with us as redshirt seniors,” Franklin said on Thursday morning. “Because that’s a whole different discussion going on nationally right now about the graduate transfers. And that’s a challenge for us. It’s a good challenge for us because we’re graduating our guys so fast. Look at this year, we had two guys go to the NFL that had another eligibility left, one graduated and could have come back.”

“We graduate so many players in three and a half years, that if they redshirt they’ve got another year left. So that’s kind of one of the decisions we make, where is he going to be the most useful to us, as a fifth year redshirt senior or as a true freshman now.” 

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