An Antitrust Analysis of the NCAA Transfer Policy

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) is no stranger to antitrust law. As a trade association composed of nearly all U.S. colleges offering competitive sports, its rules are regularly challenged under antitrust law. In the past 40 years, the NCAA has faced challenges to rules limiting televised game broadcasts, curtailing assistant coaches’ pay, and restraining players’ compensation, among other issues. Restraints on college athlete transfers also could subject the Association to reasonable legal scrutiny. Restrictions on the ability to transfer can harm athletes by preventing their immediate eligibility even though transferring could allow them to be closer to family, enroll in more academically rigorous schools, or escape abusive coaches. Transfer restraints have an especially restrictive effect on players hoping to one day play in the National Football League (“NFL”). For these individuals, the college football system is the primary opportunity to showcase talent before declaring for the League’s draft. The NCAA’s transfer rules keep many of these elite players on their teams’ benches. This hurts their ability to prepare for careers in the NFL. And it denies football fans the opportunity to watch them perform in college. The NCAA’s rules that prevent football players from freely transferring between schools have changed over time. Why? Because of the changing preferences of members of the NCAA Division I Council (“NCAA Council”), a group of college athletic directors and administrators. In April 2021, the NCAA Council changed its rules to facilitate the movement of football players between schools, allowing athletes who had not previously switched schools to pursue transfer opportunities by entering a portal within a 60-day window. On October 4, 2023, the NCAA Council reduced the transfer window from 60 to 45 days. In this Essay, we explore the antitrust consequences of this latest action by the NCAA Council, as well as the broader competitive effects of limits on college football player movement. We conclude that: (1) the NCAA’s transfer limits impose substantial anticompetitive effects; (2) the NCAA could offer (but would need to prove) a justification based on reduced fan interest from a lack of team stability; (3) less restrictive alternatives (including the 60-day transfer window) are available; and (4) the restraint’s anticompetitive effects are likely to outweigh its procompetitive effects.