Is The Mustapha Heron Transfer Going To Change How The NCAA Rules On Transfer Eligibility?

So here comes something interesting from Jeff Goodman. Over the weekend we saw Mustapha Heron get a hardship waiver to be eligible immediately after transferring from Auburn to St. John’s. The reason for his transfer was to be closer to home (Connecticut) where he has a sick mother. But, this has been the trend this year in college basketball. We’re seeing hardship waivers being granted without really any pushback.

What that could mean this year is now more players getting deemed eligible before the start of the season or during the season. As Goodman says in his tweet a coach reached out to him and talked about how they are going to try and file hardship waivers for their guys if they can find a precedent. That’s going to be the key. If you can find something to argue – a sick parent or anything where there was an approval this year – you can easily get a player on the roster this season.

I have no problem with any of this. I mean Heron should have been granted the hardship waiver. There’s no doubt that it’s a legit reason as he’s leaving a top-15 team to get closer to home. It’s not an up-transfer or anything like that. Hell, I don’t even have a problem with any transfer being eligible immediately. Why not? The redshirt year doesn’t make a whole ton of sense, but it’s the NCAA, so not much makes sense to begin with.

What I do wonder is if we’ll see more coaches take the approach like the one who talked to Goodman. We could see teams take advantage of this current loophole and make this season even more entertaining. I’m all for it.