A wild idea regarding transfers and parity in wrestling

[Jimmy Cinnabon]

In many sports leagues there is an attempt at creating parity and competitive balance through mechanics like salary caps and draft position being inversely related to performance.

What if in college wrestling, the number of permissible transfers each season was inversely related to performance at NCAAs? I.e. the first place team is only allowed 1 transfer-in the following season, second place gets two, third place gets three, etc.  The maximum would be 10 for any team.

Note this would not require teams to bring in transfers, it would just set the maximum numbers of transfers they could bring in the following season.

 

Thoughts?

[Southend]

Good hypothesis. Something needs to be looked at. Or the haves will continue to control the have nots. 

[1032004]

Dumb Jimmy thread.  This goes completely against why NIL became allowed 

[Southend]

1 minute ago, 1032004 said:

Dumb Jimmy thread.  This goes completely against why NIL became allowed 

Ok so nil puts the stop for this idea. 

[LoserJucoMan]

That's a horrible idea lol. Why should a team have to be at a disadvantage because of how successful they are?

[Southend]

Agreed 

[Bacanator]

Penn State had a a single transfer from last season on their starting line up and two in total so I doubt this would help. Just would end up hurting the 2nd and 3rd place team even more

[CHROMEBIRD]

The NCAA could take a page from the UWW rulebook and have schools pay a development fee if an athlete transfers. If a wrestler transfers from School A to School Z, then School Z pays School A a nominal fee for the time and resources they spent on the wrestler. 

Higher rates can be charged if the wrestler is an AA, conference champ/placewinner, NCAA champion, etc. At least this way the schools getting pillaged of talent will have money to offer another athlete, or to put into the development of the program.

[1032004]

2 hours ago, Southend said:

Ok so nil puts the stop for this idea. 

Not that it puts a stop to it, but the reason for NIL in the first place was because the schools had all the power and athletes didn’t have much.  This would take some of that away from the athletes 

[JWC]

Without a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the two entities, Universities and Players, this would restrict a players earning potential. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

CBA is exactly the reason why programs and conferences are doing everything they can to prevent student-athletes participating in revenue sharing to be classified as employees

[juniorvarsity]

On 3/26/2026 at 7:37 PM, Jimmy Cinnabon said:

In many sports leagues there is an attempt at creating parity and competitive balance through mechanics like salary caps and draft position being inversely related to performance.

What if in college wrestling, the number of permissible transfers each season was inversely related to performance at NCAAs? I.e. the first place team is only allowed 1 transfer-in the following season, second place gets two, third place gets three, etc.  The maximum would be 10 for any team.

Note this would not require teams to bring in transfers, it would just set the maximum numbers of transfers they could bring in the following season.

 

Thoughts?

I think a cap could be good. But basing it in performance is unfair and who knows, there's probably some legal liability for enforcing something like that. 

[ionel]

On 3/26/2026 at 8:39 PM, CHROMEBIRD said:

The NCAA could take a page from the UWW rulebook and have schools pay a development fee if an athlete transfers. If a wrestler transfers from School A to School Z, then School Z pays School A a nominal fee for the time and resources they spent on the wrestler. 

Higher rates can be charged if the wrestler is an AA, conference champ/placewinner, NCAA champion, etc. At least this way the schools getting pillaged of talent will have money to offer another athlete, or to put into the development of the program.

The NCAA can't do much of anything anymore (dare I say nonothingatall) they can't even enforce their own rules.  

Edited March 28 by ionel

[alex1fly]

It’s not a crazy idea, especially as the professionalism of college athletes gets cemented in practice and in law. College sports are not done being regulated and evolving. 

[Caveira]

On 3/26/2026 at 7:27 PM, elijedi06 said:

Penn State had a a single transfer from last season on their starting line up and two in total so I doubt this would help. Just would end up hurting the 2nd and 3rd place team even more

Psu had two starters at NCAAs and a third starter had hew / injuries so they had to trot out a third string backup …

they really had 3 transfers in the lineup ish 

[AgaveMaria]

Nope, your restricting our right to choose won't fly.

Numbers tell the tale. No one team can have three squads of top talent at all weights because too many of the athletes want to compete, not ride the bench. 

 

[Bacanator]

2 hours ago, Caveira said:

Psu had two starters at NCAAs and a third starter had hew / injuries so they had to trot out a third string backup …

they really had 3 transfers in the lineup ish 

Who was second string at 141?? Genuinely curious because they would’ve done much better than Davis lol

For some reason I was thinking Van Ness was a transfer but he’s been a homer

[Caveira]

Just now, elijedi06 said:

Who was second string at 141?? Genuinely curious because they would’ve done much better than Davis lol

For some reason I was thinking Van Ness was a transfer but he’s been a homer

Ono?  There is a 3000 page thread on how good he is