Why only some Ole Miss players can transfer without sitting out a year, unlike Penn State players in 2012

Shea Patterson and every other Ole Miss underclassman don’t meet an exception in the NCAA rulebook.

The Ole Miss football program is facing heavy NCAA sanctions. The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions finally ruled on the Rebels’ years-long case and unveiled its punishment last Friday. That includes a bowl ban for 2018 (after Ole Miss self-imposed one for 2017), scholarship reductions, and hiring penalties for former coaches.

Because Ole Miss is bowl-banned for 2018, players entering their last year of eligibility are allowed to transfer from the program without sitting out a year in “academic residence.” That could lead other programs to make a run on Ole Miss’ roster, and it also might contribute to players deciding to leave school for the NFL.

The only players definitely allowed to transfer and play immediately are those whose eligibility runs out before Ole Miss is bowl-eligible again.

So, rising seniors.

The relevant NCAA rule that waives the one-year sitting requirement for transfers:

On the recommendation of the Committee on Infractions, for a student-athlete who transfers to a member institution to continue the student-athlete’s opportunity for full participation in a sport because the student-athlete’s original institution was placed on probation by the NCAA with sanctions that would preclude the institution’s team in that sport from participating in postseason competition during all of the remaining seasons of the student-athlete’s eligibility.

An NCAA spokeswoman confirms that in a statement to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and adds that teams don’t have to ask for Ole Miss permission to recruit its players:

"It is not necessary for an institution to obtain permission in writing to recruit a student-athlete at an institution that has been placed on probation with sanctions that preclude it from competing in postseason competition during the remaining seasons of the student-athlete's eligibility. However, the student-athlete's institution must be notified of the recruitment and may establish reasonable restrictions related to the contact (e.g., no visits during class time), provided such restrictions do not preclude the opportunity for the student-athlete to discuss transfer possibilities with the other institution."

Ole Miss is slated to have 23 seniors on its roster next year.

That’s pending any roster changes, based on a reading of Ole Miss’ roster for its last game of the 2017 season. Any of those players is eligible to leave Ole Miss next season and play right away for another team, as long as they meet standard eligibility criteria.

The players who could be eligible immediately elsewhere include star defensive end Breeland Speaks, receiver DaMarkus Lodge, and backup quarterback Jordan Ta’amu, who was impressive down the stretch this season.

But you’ve probably seen stories about other players transferring, too.

The most notable by far is current true sophomore quarterback Shea Patterson. Ole Miss reportedly granted Patterson permission to seek a transfer — and, notably, granted other schools the permission to contact him. After Patterson followed Jim Harbaugh and a Michigan recruiting staffer on Twitter, that’s one landing spot idea.

If Patterson transfers, he’ll probably have to sit out next season.

That’s the standard NCAA rule. There might be some mechanism available to Patterson and other Rebels to play immediately, given the school’s current situation. But the official rulebook exception doesn’t cover Patterson because he’s got two years left of college eligibility, while Ole Miss’ postseason ban only covers one of those .

Another Rebel, sophomore safety Deontay Anderson, is suing the program and alleging he was misled during his recruitment. He wants to be eligible immediately elsewhere and is reportedly petitioning the NCAA for immediate eligibility. It’s not clear how that petition will unfold, but non-graduate transfers almost always have to sit a season.

This is a different story than what happened at Penn State in 2012.

After Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky scandal, the NCAA imposed huge sanctions on the school. That included the right of every player on the roster to transfer freely and play immediately elsewhere. Penn State’s postseason ban was four years, which meant the entire roster’s eligibility would’ve been up by the end of the ban. All in all, everyone could leave freely. Ole Miss’ ban is one year, so only about one-fourth of the team can.

Ole Miss might still lose a lot of players, but the whole roster won’t go.

And even at Penn State, where everyone on the team could’ve gone, fewer than a dozen players actually took advantage of the option.