Inside the policy change at Colorado that fueled Deion Sanders' rebuilding strategy

BOULDER, Colo. — About seven minutes before Deion Sanders took the stage for the first time as the new head football coach at Colorado, the university chancellor shared some important news with the assembled crowd of Colorado alumni and fans.

“We’re updating some of our transfer credit review processes,” Chancellor Phil DiStefano said at Sanders’ introductory news conference Dec. 4.

An outburst of cheers then interrupted him as if he had just announced the liberation of the Colorado football program.

In a way, he had.             

It’s called the “pilot program for transfer credit review,” a policy change that made it easier for players to transfer there from another four-year college. It’s not just for athletes, but no other group of students has used it more than football players, according to data obtained by USA TODAY Sports. It’s not even close.

And it might be the biggest reason the football program improved so quickly, aside from the hiring of “Coach Prime” himself. His recruitment of dozens of transfer players even fueled a roster overhaul that was unprecedented in college football history. But was the policy change good for the university overall?

DiStefano says yes because it’s making CU more accessible to more students. On the other hand, a longtime college sports reform advocate said it looks like another case of the tail wagging the dog, meaning football seems to be driving university academic decisions, as it has for other schools over the years.

“This was done to benefit athletic eligibility; they should be honest about it,” said B. David Ridpath, a sports business professor at Ohio University and longtime member of The Drake Group, which pushes for reform in college sports.

University officials said it’s not that simple and previously described this policy as being for “all students.” But it’s not for all students, as shown by the data.

New Colorado transfer policy: 87 football players, 64 non-athletes

Instead, this faster, more generous new transfer credit review process is only for athletes and some non-athletes who are residents of the state.

It was set up this way for a reason − priorities and limited resources. It also appears to narrowly avoid any trouble with NCAA rules that prohibit "extra benefits" for athletes. To comply with those rules, such a benefit at least must be generally available to a "particular segment" of the university's student body on a basis unrelated to athletic ability. In this case, 87 football players were evaluated under this beneficial new process, compared to 64 non-athlete students from the state of Colorado.

Overall, 102 athletes have been evaluated under this process since it began this year, including the 87 football players, according to the university. Of those 102, 51 have enrolled, including 41 of those football players, the university said.

By contrast, 64 non-athlete students were evaluated under the policy, 49 of whom enrolled and all of whom are Colorado residents. Those who didn't enroll decided not to come to CU for whatever reason, the university said.

Who benefits from new transfer policy at Colorado?

These 64 non-athlete students from Colorado are only those who were flagged for special consideration under the policy to determine whether certain class credits at their previous colleges would count for credit toward a degree at CU, said Jennifer Ziegenfus, CU Boulder’s assistant vice chancellor for admissions.

They represent a small portion of the 1,519 new undergraduate transfers at Colorado in the fall of 2023.

“There’s a much larger volume (of non-athlete Colorado resident students) … that had all credits that transferred and always would have transferred, with no special consideration,” she said. "The 64 resident nonathletes were just the ones we had to consider because they had a course that perhaps in the past might not have actually had a credit transfer or multiple credit transfers."

It’s different in athletics. All undergraduate athlete transfers from four-year colleges were evaluated under this new process − not just some and not just Colorado residents wanting to transfer back to their home state university.  

It's not exactly for all students

DiStefano announced Dec. 4 the program seeks to benefit "all prospective transfer students." CU President Todd Saliman also has described it as being for "all students." As it turns out, non-athlete students from out of state aren’t included in it – just intercollegiate athletes and Colorado resident students, Ziegenfus said.

This new transfer credit review has been limited to those groups for a reason.

“There’s a significant lift that we’ve had to shift resources over to different areas, in order to meet the time demands that something like this pilot takes,” Ziegenfus said.

She said it would “take even more resources than we currently have on campus” to expand it to a much larger population.

Football is its primary client so far, according to data provided by the university.

Asked about this policy not exactly being for "all students" as previously described, CU spokesman Steve Hurlbert said in an email, "You’re right that the current process is not necessarily for every transfer, but the Chancellor has been very clear from the time he announced this at Coach Prime’s press conference that it was a pilot program and therefore open for expansion."

A course credit still needs a grade of a C-minus or better to transfer to Colorado, and it must be from an accredited four-year college. No remedial classes or physical education classes are allowed to transfer, either. The change so far only applies to the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, the most populous college for undergraduates on campus.

The change does not apply to junior college transfers or graduate student transfers, who engage in a different admissions process.

What does Deion Sanders say about new transfer policy?

Sanders praised DiStefano and mentioned his support after the chancellor announced his retirement Sept. 26.

“He did some wonderful things here, even changing some things so a lot of our athletes could get in and then they proved themselves that they should have been in,” Sanders said at a news conference Sept. 26.

To gain a better understanding of the policy change, USA TODAY Sports interviewed Sanders, DiStefano and Ziegenfus. Each of them stressed that the change did not automatically grant admission to any transfer player who wanted to come to CU or lower academic admission standards for transfers, such as grade-point averages.

“These transfers have to be academically sound, though,” Sanders said in a recent interview with USA TODAY set up by the Aflac insurance company, one of his corporate partners. “You just can’t bring in a kid, and he’s not gonna do his schoolwork.”

Sanders also pointed out his team posted a school football-record grade-point average of 2.932 for the spring semester, when it had 29 new scholarship players on the team, including 14 undergraduate transfers from other four-year colleges.

What should count toward a degree at Colorado?

The initiative eliminated obstacles that previously had gotten in the way of transfer prospects at Colorado and effectively hung a big “Welcome!” sign out for them that wasn’t there before.

That’s because universities have discretion on what class credits are allowed to come along with transfer students from previous universities. Policies vary depending on how they want to answer a general question:

What classes at other colleges should count toward a degree at their institution?

Too many class credits from elsewhere could mean diluting the value of a degree at the receiving college. Too few could make the receiving college less accessible to a wider array of students from diverse backgrounds.

Before the policy change, Colorado was viewed as too strict about it, compared to others in college football. Last year, the Buffaloes finished 1-11 with only two new undergraduate transfers from four-year colleges on their scholarship roster.

DiStefano acknowledged that many blamed the previous transfer policy for holding back the football program. But he said the previous head coach, Karl Dorrell, “never talked to me about it” and noted “much of it was in the works before we hired Sanders.”

Colorado athletic director Rick George also has acknowledged hearing concerns about the previous transfer policy from coaching candidates to replace Dorrell after he was fired in October 2022.

Some schools still aren’t as welcoming. Stanford, for example, only has eight undergraduate transfers on its football roster, compared to 29 undergraduate scholarship transfers from other four-year colleges for Colorado. (Incidentally, Stanford recently beat Colorado in double overtime, 46-43.)

What was the effect of transfer policy change at Colorado?

Major college football changed dramatically in 2021, when the NCAA allowed undergraduate players to transfer freely one time without first sitting out a year of competition.

Other schools with looser transfer restrictions soon began bringing in a bevy of talented transfers while Colorado fell victim to the opposite effect. Instead of bringing transfer players in, CU’s best players were transferring out. Star wide receiver Brenden Rice transferred to Southern California in January 2022. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez also left CU for Oregon in 2022 before being selected in the first round of the NFL draft in April.

It wasn’t until Sanders arrived, with help from this policy change, that the Buffaloes were able to reverse the talent flow in the transfer portal. Colorado now has the nation’s No. 1 transfer recruit class for 2023, according to 247Sports.

Out of an overall scholarship roster limit of 85, Colorado now leads the nation with the 51 new transfer players overall – four from junior colleges, 18 graduate transfers and 29 from other four-year colleges. That doesn’t include some transfers who left the team after the spring or non-scholarship transfers who benefited from the new policy.

It’s also not clear how much certain players benefited from the policy change, but Sanders’ transfer-heavy roster-building strategy has succeeded. The team captured the nation’s attention with a 3-0 start and is now 4-4, led by two transfers from Jackson State – quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter.

What problem did it solve for the Buffaloes?

Four-year college players who are considering transferring to a new college are warned to consider potential roadblocks that could delay their plans to play and graduate from their new school.

“Consider the academic implications of transferring to a new school,” the NCAA states in a transfer guide for players. “How many of your credits will transfer? Do they offer your major?”

This previously was a problem for those wanting to transfer to Colorado. They would run into delays and restrictions that could have steered them away or prevented them from being immediately eligible there in sports.

Under the previous policy, they faced a bigger risk of course credits from their previous university getting rejected as credits at Colorado if they didn’t match a similar academic program there.

“The difference that we see in the admissions office is that there are some courses that traditionally we would not transfer, or we would not say were applicable to a student’s degree at the time of admission” under the old policy, Ziegenfus said.

What does new transfer policy at Colorado do?

Under the new policy, they are now able to transfer more course credit hours that they earned at previous universities and at least have them count at Colorado as elective credits. The review process also is much faster in determining what credit is transferable.

“If a student takes a course at a four-year accredited institution, that course will automatically count for an elective” under the new policy, DiStefano told USA TODAY in a September interview.

The difference is more immediate, broader acceptance of credit hours from previous universities, “as opposed to asking the student to send us a course syllabus a few weeks after they were admitted” to determine if the course from the previous school counted for credit at Colorado, Ziegenfus said.

“At that point they may or may not get credit for that actual course” under the old policy, Ziegenfus said. “That is all happening up front (under the new policy), and we are now more generous with actually accepting that credit.”

For example, DiStefano said if students wanted to transfer to CU with an agricultural engineering course from another university they would run into some trouble. He said CU doesn’t offer that course, so a committee previously would have to review it and eventually make a decision about whether it would count at CU.

“Now it automatically transfers as an elective,” he said.

At Stanford, by contrast, coursework from another school “must have substantial content overlap with Stanford coursework” to count as credit at Stanford, its website states. “A maximum of 20 quarter units may represent courses that do not parallel specific undergraduate courses at Stanford.”

Stanford didn’t return messages seeking further information.

How does Colorado’s transfer policy change help athletes?

The NCAA requires athletes to make certain progress toward their degrees, such as completing 40% of required coursework for a degree by the end of the second year, 60% by the end of their third year and 80% by the end of their fourth year.

A minimum of 120 credit hours are required to graduate. If athletes don’t complete 48 credits (40%) by the end of their second year or 72 by the end of their third year (60%), those athletes won’t be eligible under NCAA rules to play immediately even if they’re admitted to the school.

Therefore, NCAA compliance experts said it helps those athletes if a university now is allowing more credits from a transfer’s previous college to count toward those percentages.  

“The school you’re transferring to needs to be able to accept enough transferable credit from the previous school or schools so that the athlete can meet that 40 or 60 or 80% requirement,” said Rick Allen, founder of Informed Athlete, which helps college athletes navigate NCAA rules issues, including transfers and eligibility.

If the school didn’t accept enough previous credit hours, that would mean those players aren’t eligible to play right away, leading them to look elsewhere.

“That added flexibility to count electives transferred in from another university, which it previously rejected as non-transferable, helps satisfy NCAA progress-toward-degree requirements, increasing the likelihood of competition eligibility,” said Joshua Lens, an assistant professor at Arkansas who previously worked in NCAA rules compliance at Baylor.

How exactly did new policy impact football team?

Colorado said it didn’t have data on how many players would not have been eligible this year under the old policy compared to the new one.

Ziegenfus said the range of what is accepted as credit now compared to before can range from zero to 16 additional credits, but that the median credit-hour difference for those who have been evaluated, including non-athletes, is three, or about one class.

The change still is arguably more meaningful to athletes than non-athletes who aren’t affected by NCAA eligibility requirements.  

“The new transfer process definitely satisfies NCAA progress-toward-degree requirements because these transfer credits are often counting for a student’s degree program,” said Hurlbert, the university spokesman.

These issues became more important to athletics in 2021, when the NCAA no longer required transfer players to first sit out a year of competition at their new school − a year they could use to make up for any lost credit from their previous college.

Now that players are allowed to transfer and play right away, they don’t want to be blocked from the field of play by a college that says some of their prior classes don’t count. 

What is downside to new transfer policy at Colorado?

DiStefano sees the change as a positive because it also benefits Colorado residents and eliminates barriers that kept them from transferring to CU.

Yet the required resources, the timing of it and the number of football players involved in it still raise the issue of whether this was totally driven by football. And if it was, does that even matter if admission standards were not lowered in this case?

In December 2021, three national education associations issued a joint statement on the transfer and award of credit in college. It encouraged colleges to “remove impediments that prevent timely and appropriate awarding of credit for learning already acquired” to help improve accessibility in higher education. Colorado said it did that.

At the same time, the statement said, “Credit award decisions must be applied consistently and equitably for all students” and it cautioned against awarding credit to “fulfill electives.”

“Credit for prior learning is most beneficial when it is applied to fulfill a specific degree or credential requirement,” the statement said.

Ridpath, the sports business professor at Ohio, says it seems clear why Colorado did this now.

“If this was about all students, it would have been done long ago, and you know that CU has not been as accessible before,” he said. “Hey, it’s great that it benefits (non-athletes, too). But don’t sugarcoat it. All schools are making transfers easier with the primary beneficiary being athletics. Just tell it like it is.”

Coach Prime and the transfer portal

Ridpath said the school should just admit it was driven by sports by saying, “We did this for athletes, and others can benefit.”

The school does not say this, however. Asked if this was driven by football, the university spokesman said, “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“This had been in the works for a while before Coach Prime was hired and campus-wide policies take a lot of buy-in from a lot of different stakeholders,” Hurlbert said. “This was very much a collaborative effort between the administration, athletics, and our faculty representatives to develop a creative solution that could impact a large number of prospective transfer students.”

Football players are still making the most of it and likely will keep doing so as Deion Sanders plans to restock his roster next year with transfer recruits. The transfer portal opens up again Dec. 4, exactly one year after the new transfer policy at Colorado was announced at Sanders’ introductory press conference.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected]