snoscythe wrote:
Which brings up a question I don't have an answer to and it would apply only to BYU FB.
Before, if someone left another MWC team to come to BYU, didn't they have to sit a year even though the clock was still ticking costing them a year? Now in this situation, he probably still falls under the Riley Nelson NCAA rule, but coming to BYU he wouldn't have that lost year correct? Now with FB where we are now independent, it will never cost any player that additional year if he transfers to BYU correct? He would still have to sit a year, but the clock wouldn't be ticking. I could have it wrong, but that's what I thought it was.
Any transfer within FBS is a one-year sit out penalty. Transfers within the conference are TWO-year sit out penalties. Now, BYU just has one-year across the board.
The Riley Nelson rule only applies to RMs who played at their original school before the mission. If they only committed or redshirted before their mission, they can come in and play right away as their mission wipes out the one-year penalty for general transfers.
I had the Riley Nelson rule wrong. It doesn't say anything about the RM athlete sitting out an extra season, it just says that BYU can't contact missionaries and recruit them without getting permission from the school "from which the student withdrew" after signing an NLI
and attending school.
"Official Church Mission. An institution shall not contact a student-athlete who has begun service on an official church mission without obtaining permission from the institution from which the student-athlete withdrew prior to beginning his or her mission if the student-athlete signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) and attended the institution (with which he or she signed the NLI) as a full-time student.
If such a student-athlete has completed his or her official church mission and does not enroll full time in a collegiate institution within one calendar year of completion of the mission, an institution may contact the student-athlete without obtaining permission from the first institution."
So, the rule just has to do with recruiting the players, and not the actual transfers. Here, because Sharp attended the U and signed an NLI with them, BYU and USU can't initiate contact with him to recruit him while he's on his mission. That's it. He can call BYU and USU and ask if a scholarship would be available, but they can't call him and offer it.