The Division I Committee on Academic Performance has established a process for handling requests to waive the year-in-residence requirement for student-athletes who transfer because their team is subject to a postseason ban because of long-term poor academic performance.

The group also revised its policies regarding permission to contact student-athletes on a team subject to the postseason ban.

Existing policy gives special consideration to waiver requests for student-athletes with only one year of eligibility remaining on teams subject to the postseason ban.

Requests to waive the year in residence for transfers generally go through national office staff who support the Legislative Council’s Subcommittee for Legislative Relief, but if the request cites the postseason ban as a reason for the transfer, staff who support the Committee on Academic Performance’s Subcommittee on Appeals will review the case and make a recommendation.

The legislative relief subcommittee will continue to make the final decision and notify the applicant and penalized institutions (as is the case with all waiver requests).

The Committee on Academic Performance also amended its policies to eliminate the student-athlete’s “five-year clock” as a factor when deciding if an institution may contact a student-athlete about a potential transfer. In addition, CAP will decide whether to allow permission to contact during the penalty waiver process.

Current rules require that to allow contact with a student-athlete on a team subject to a postseason ban as a result of poor academic performance, the penalty must preclude the student-athlete’s team from postseason competition for the remainder of the student-athlete’s athletics eligibility.

The committee’s decision regarding permission to contact will be communicated when the penalized institution has exhausted all appeals. The institution will be required to notify student-athletes if permission to be contacted was granted, though it must also inform the student-athletes that though they have been granted permission to be contacted, they still must meet certain standards to qualify for a waiver of the transfer year-in-residence requirement.

In general, the committee will not grant permission to be contacted to a student-athlete who contributed to the team’s academic underperformance, including the loss of one or more eligibility or retention points during his or her athletics career. An institution may grant permission to contact its student-athletes at any time. The committee’s policy is intended to protect institutions from losing further APR points due to the transfer of student-athletes who were not performing academically.