NCAA Basketball: 20 biggest pending waiver decisions for 2020-21 season

Which NCAA Basketball transfers looking for a possible waiver from the NCAA could alter the upcoming season the most? Here are the top 20 to keep an eye on.

In the world of NCAA Basketball, there’s no bigger non-Covid topic more discussed than “transfers”. It’s always been around since the beginning of time but the concept has exploded in the past decade, with hundreds of D-I athletes each offseason having elected to leave their original programs for somewhere else.

In the past couple of years though, it has become a very divisive topic. For those on the “old school” side of things, transferring is looked down upon because it involves “quitting” when the going gets tough and breaking an agreement/commitment to the school/coach that you gave.

However, those on the other side brings up two main arguments. The first being the hypocrisy that head coaches get to break those same agreements with schools/high school recruits, without having to face any issues. And considering that players aren’t getting paid (yet), there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to freely leave.

Something else that has been coming up in the use of “waivers”, given to transfers by the NCAA to play without having to sit out for a legitimate reason, such as going close to home or not having an available scholarship from the old team. But that line has been blurred recently, with controversy coming with some players getting waivers, while others haven’t.

That’s why the NCAA has wanted to get out of the waiver business by establishing a new blanket rule for all transfers. The proposed new rule would be that all players are allowed to transfer freely without having to sit out one time. There are pros and cons to this but it eliminates those having to obtain waivers. However, the pandemic has forced the committee to postpone the new rule until at least the next offseason. But the odds are good that it’ll change in 2021.

That still creates a ton of questions for the transfers of this offseason, with many having already submitted waiver requests. Two key players – DJ Carton of Marquette and Johnny Juzang of UCLA, already have been granted waivers to play in 2020-21. But many more are still in limbo, affective their respective programs.

This will get resolved hopefully in the next couple of months but for now, it’s time to speculate. Here’s a list of 20 transfers looking for waivers that can impact the upcoming season in a big way.