So what happens when your school closes?

I'm sure our resident "expert" 3fingeredglove will see this and chime in soon. He can quote chapter and verse of the NCAA rules. Good luck to your son and hopefully he'll be back on a field somewhere soon.

There is a father-poster both on this message board and in the St. Louis newspaper
s prep section that is very knowledgeable on thes matters. His call sign is is "Gitnby". I would suggest that you reach out and PM him...Good luck with the ACL recovery. My son is five weeks out from ACL and meniscus surgery and it has been rough on him...

Let's separate this into two aspects.
First, transferring is not a problem: The school has announced that it is closing, which means that it is also discontinuing the baseball program. For transfers to NAIA, as long as the player has a cumulative 2.0, and a release from the previous school, he is eligible immediately (Article 5G.1).

In NCAA D1, Bylaw 14.5.5.2.6 applies, and it provides for immediate eligibility assuming the player is academically eligible. In D2, the bylaw is numbered 14.5.5.3.6, but is basically the same as D1. In D3, the player is immediately eligible as long as he would have been athletically and academically eligible at the previous college.

For discontinued sports, it doesn't matter that he already transferred once from a 4 year school.

Secondly, the rules for a hardship waiver (frequently referred to as a "medical redshirt") vary among the divisions, but it sounds like he would qualify.
1) A doctor must have diagnosed and documented the injury.
2) The injury needs to be incapacitating for the rest of the season.
3) The injury must have occurred before the player has been in a threshold number of games, which depends on the rules of the new division.

A torn ACL and meniscus with attendent surgery likely will meet the first two requirements. For NAIA, the player must not have played in more than 8 games. NCAA D1 requires that the injury occurred in the first half of the season, and that the player participated in not more than 30% of the games. For D2, the player must not have been in more than 20% or the games. D3 uses one third.

The request for a hardship waiver needs to originate at his new school and is ruled on by the new conference. Make sure that you keep the medical documentation.

Wow! You ARE an expert!

Thanks for the very quick reply!

As you can imagine, this is all very stressful, disappointing, and depressing.


This info helps. Thank you so much!

Technically, however, the school has NOT yet closed, nor has the baseball program been dropped. Either or both might happen soon, or neither. A transfer to a DI or DII school before either of those "officially" happens would result in the year of residence being invoked, in normal circumstances.