HELENA – The Big Sky Conference has rescinded a policy that required student-athletes to sit out a year before being eligible to compete after transferring to another school within the conference.
The presidents of the conference schools voted unanimously Monday to allow transfer students to compete right away, the league announced Tuesday.
“As our membership reviewed our policy as well as the national landscape regarding the issue of student-athletes being able to transfer to another school within the same league and compete immediately, we recognized that this would be the right step for our conference to take,” Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said in a statement.
“Allowing student-athletes this flexibility is in their best interests, and I appreciate the thoughtful discussion all of our constituents had that helped lead us to this outcome,” he said.
The Big Sky Conference has universities in Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Oregon.
The NCAA last month adopted new transfer rule that takes effect this fall giving student-athletes a one-time opportunity to transfer schools and compete immediately.
The NCAA already has a grad transfer rule allowing student-athletes to compete right away if they earned a bachelor’s degree, wanted to pursue a graduate degree at another school and still had eligibility remaining.