Can a student play sports at four universities in four years and graduate?
Maybe
It is just for college athletes to be paid given the amount of money that is involved. We are moving toward an era of revenue sharing between schools and players plus Name Image and Likeness (NIL) deals atop that. There are many details to be worked out, however, we already see some evidence that the amount of money that a player can make in college has reduced early-entrants to the NBA draft. Paying players is aligned with incentives to stay in college and graduate.
However, the expansive transfer approach that was adopted in 2021-22 on a short term basis due to COVID that has now become the new normal, works against this goal due to the idiosyncratic transfer and course equivalent rules that universities maintain. The upcoming academic year will see players playing for their fourth school in four years. Is it possible to graduate in four years at four schools?
Not easy, but possible. I think.
UNC to NC State? Unthinkable to Fans, but Facilitated by the UNC System
Ven-Allen Lubin confirmed that he transferred from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to North Carolina State University over the weekend. Will Wade must have made him a strong ass offer. In fairness to coach Wade, what was a scandal in 2017 is now 100 percent legal in college sports—offering a player a guaranteed amount of money to come to college and play sports for one year. After digging in with Hollis Robbins on transfer rules and college athletics, I am interested in what Mr. Lubin’s college career can tell us about college athletics in the age of unlimited transfer with immediate sports eligibility.
The punch line up front. NC State will be his fourth school in four years, and it may be the only school in the nation to which Mr. Lubin could have a plausible chance of graduating after the fourth year, because UNC and NC State are a part of the same University system.
Mr. Lubin is a basketball player who has attended and played for:
Notre Dame (major undecided as common for a frosh, and he made the 2022-23 Academic All ACC team).
Vanderbilt (2023-24) where his major remained undecided; Under NCAA rules, he had to have completed 24 credit hours at Notre Dame to transfer and play immediately at Vanderbilt as he did after one year in school.
UNC (2024-25) was his third school, where he majored in exercise and sports science and administration. Under NCAA rules, he had to have completed at least 40% of the coursework toward a college degree when leaving Vanderbilt for UNC. He could have completed the bulk of general college requirements at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. UNC’s transfer requirement rules are idiosyncratic in the most general sense—universities set their own rules and they do not have to follow one another. Below I highlight two of the most relevant for someone transferring into UNC after two years:
The maximum number of hours that may be transferred from any and all institutions combined is 75. This means 62.5% of hours can be transferred in; public universities tend to have fairly high transfer allowances to maximize transfer capabilities from community college to university and within system universities. Hollis Robbins has written more about this from a consumer protection standpoint (same credit available to students at very different tuition costs).
Elective courses generally do not contribute directly to a major/academic program, but they do help students progress toward earning the 120 semester hours needed for graduation.
Mr. Lubin starts his major at UNC after finishing a lot of his general education requirements at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt. He very easily could have been on track to graduate in four years from UNC.
Mr. Lubin is now transferring to NC State (for 2025-26 academic year/season). Generally, transferring to a new school after or during your third year can mean taking classes that nevertheless do not do much to get you toward graduating. However, because NC State and UNC have a similar major (BS in Sports Management), AND are both a part of the University of North Carolina 17 campus system, there is a reasonable chance that he can be on schedule to graduate after one year at NC State, especially if he is also doing summer school. NC State has a requirement that 30 of the last 45 credit hours prior to graduation must come from NC State, and that is both doable and likely rendered less stringently applied since the immediately prior institution is also a part of the UNC system.
The overall UNC System provides this general policy (Comprehensive Articulation Agreement between UNC Community Colleges and System Institutions) that is designed to maximize ease of transfer across schools in the system (emphasis added by me):
Students who are currently enrolled at or have previously attended a UNC System institution can transfer to other universities within the System. While each university’s transfer admissions criteria and credit equivalencies will vary, it is likely that credits will transfer between institutions. We recommend that you explore degree requirements at specific universities, as major requirements and general education requirements may differ between institutions. You can also look at the Common Numbering System, which guarantees credit for certain courses between UNC System institutions, to help streamline the transfer process.
What Can We Learn from this One Example
It appears to be literally possible to attend four universities in four years and graduate, especially with summer school between years. However, it is not likely. For example, if this were done in reverse (NC State, UNC, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame) it would not be possible because private universities allow far fewer courses to transfer. Duke’s rules, for example only allow 10 of 34 classes to be transferred.
Universities have long maintained idiosyncratic rules for things like transfer credits, and I don’t see that changing, nor do I think that it should. We have enough problems to deal with.
I think that I tend toward unfettered capitalism for the payment of players. If we are going to do it, let’s do it and see what happens. I am not sure how we intervene without unintended consequences, how whatever we do will not result in more lawsuits and so on. My guess is that we are headed for around 20-30 schools playing big time football and pulling away, at least for those sports.
Long term NIL contracts could allow a market-based solution, while being aligned with maximizing the chance of graduating from college. I have written why I think neither players (want a better deal later), nor universities (player might get hurt, or not pan out) have incentives to sign longer term deals. I would love to be wrong here.
None of what I have written in this piece is a scandal, unless all of it is. One word of warning to us all. I was on Duke’s Athletic Council 12 or 13 years ago and we talked about all sorts of changes, options and the like. I am 100% confident that everyone present would have said there is no way we would participate if I described the world of college sports we have today. We are the frog being slowly boiled.
I hope that Ven-Allen Lubin has a great year, graduates from NC State and gets a chance at the NBA if that is what he wants.