Sports briefly: NCAA transfer, redshirt rules are changed

Division I student-athletes received greater freedom to transfer and college football coaches received more flexibility with their rosters in two major rule changes announced by the NCAA on Wednesday.

Starting Oct. 15, Division I student-athletes will be able to transfer to a different school and receive a scholarship without asking permission from their current school. Previous rules required the student-athlete to get permission to contact another school before they could receive a scholarship. That at times led to coaches or administrators blocking the student-athlete from transferring to a specific school.

Under the new rule, adopted by the NCAA Division I Council, student-athletes can inform their school of their desire to transfer. The school then must enter their name into a national transfer database within two business days. Other coaches then would be able to contact the student-athlete.

It should be noted that conferences have the authority to make rules that are more restrictive than the new NCAA rule.

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino has relied heavily on the transfer market during his tenure, landing nine Division I transfers in five years, including Brock Stull, Marcus Carr and Payton Willis this spring. Willis is sitting out the mandatory one year for non-graduate transfers. Stull is a grad transfer and can play immediately. Carr is expecting the Gophers to petition the NCAA for a waiver to allow him to play right away since his coach at Pittsburgh was fired.

Pitino lost his third player to transfer from last season's team Wednesday with senior center Matz Stockman asking for his release. Still, none of the incoming or outgoing U transfers will be influenced by the NCAA's rule changes on transfers announced Wednesday. The new process doesn't start until October.

The other rule the NCAA announced covers redshirting in college football. Beginning this season, players will be able to play in up to four games and not lose a year of eligibility. That will be a game-changer for college coaches, who previously had to keep a player off the field to preserve that year. Now, coaches will be able to evaluate that player in up to four games at any time in the season and still retain four years of eligibility for the player.

College football: Former Illinois quarterback Jeff George Jr. announced he will transfer to Michigan as a graduate transfer and likely will walk on.

Basketball: Anne Donovan, the Basketball Hall of Famer who won a national championship at Old Dominion, two Olympic gold medals as a player and another as a coach, died of heart failure. She was 56. Donovan played professionally in Japan and Italy because there were no women's pro leagues in the U.S. at the time.

WNBA: Elena Delle Donne scored 36 points and Kristi Toliver added 25 as Washington blew a 30-point lead before rallying past Connecticut 95-91. ... Dearica Hamby scored 17 points and Kayla McBride added 16 to lead a balanced offense in Las Vegas' 78-63 victory over New York.

NFL: The Cowboys' Zack Martin reached a six-year, $84 million extension with $40 million guaranteed to make him the highest-paid guard in the NFL.