Since Bill Moos took over as Nebraska's athletic director more than two years ago, his thoughts on the latitude student-athletes have to transfer schools have shifted.Â
On Tuesday night during an appearance on "Sports Nightly," the veteran administrator was categorical: He believes student-athletes in all sports should be allowed to transfer once without penalty. But no more than once.Â
"I've come around to a one-time transfer being acceptable and I believe they should be able to compete right away in all sports," Moos said.
The athletic director listed coaching change, playing time or just not making the right decision in the first place among his justifications.
"I know people like to say, 'Well, you chose the school and not the coach,' and that's really great to say, but that's not always the case," he said. "Sometimes maybe a quarterback is recruited and sees that they're not going to get much playing time and maybe would be a better fit at a different place."Â
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The NCAA has spent considerable time and resources considering its options in the past year, but the proposed standardization of the one-time free transfer rule across sports was tabled earlier this month until at least January because of the coronavirus pandemic and all of the other issues that need to be handled more immediately.Â
Moos expressed support for the Big Ten's proposal for one-time transfer across sports back in February, but has had concerns all along.Â
"The reason I struggled with the proposal somewhat was because I know how hard our coaching staffs — and all coaching staffs — work to evaluate and recruit a player," Moos told the Journal Star then.
"There's a big part of me that says, 'Hey, life's tough, suck it up.' But at the same time, life is short. I've known a lot of athletes who maybe could've had a wonderful experience competing if they had another chance at another school."Â
He took it a step further on Tuesday, but he was equally clear that he thinks the limit should be set at one penalty-free transfer.Â
"When the dust all settles, we're really in this for the student-athletes and their experiences."Â