Nebraska football: New NCAA rules will change the college football landscape

New rules relating to how schools will be allowed to handle transfers and redshirts will have big effects on Nebraska football this season.

The NCAA announced two very big changes to its rules on Wednesday. Both changes will go into effect for the coming season and both could have ripple effects for the Nebraska football team for decades.

The first rule and one that might eventually go unnoticed by most people not paying close attention has to do with transfer rules. This rule no longer allows schools to block transfers by not releasing players from their scholarships.

There are programs, such as Alabama most recently, that tend to use the ability to block a transfer as a kind of penalty for a player wanting to leave. While the Crimson Tide can still say they don’t want a player transferring to a conference rival, they cannot stop the player from leaving completely.

The prior rule said that players had to get permission from their current school, in order to talk to a new school. By doing this, the school could pick and choose who could recruit a player, even if they weren’t in the conference.

The new rule sets up a kind of transfer database. The new standard will be that a player tells the school he intends to transfer.

Within two days, the school must enter the player’s name in the transfer database. Once a name has been entered into the database, other coaches are free to contact the player.

Not only does this give coaches more freedom, but it also opens things up for the player. Before, someone who was transferring would have to know who he wanted to talk to and when.

The new rules make it so schools the transferring student never thought about can reach out to him and recruit him. The Nebraska football team has certainly been dealing more with transfers over the last few months. It doesn’t appear Scott Frost and company have stood in the way of any players looking to leave but the database could allow them another recruiting tool.

The second rule that was announced on Wednesday is going to have an immediate impact in 2018 and not just for the players you might be thinking about if you’ve heard the announcement.