By Marty Gordon
The Big South Conference has reversed course on a policy that directly affected Radford University earlier this year.
The Big South Council of Chief Executive Officers announced Thursday the elimination of the league’s Intraconference Transfer Policy, effective immediately. Big South student-athletes will now be governed solely by NCAA transfer policies in regards to transferring from one Big South institution to another in all sports.
The decision was made by the council following ongoing reviews and discussions with the Big South’s Council of Athletics Directors, coaches, and student-athletes.
This past May, Radford University was the center of this controversial issue when a basketball recruit from Campbell asked to transfer to the school.
In the past, a player had to sit out a season if he transferred to another school, but last year the NCAA started allowing players to be eligible immediately. The Big South held tight and said it would not change the transfer rule.
Messiah Thompson said he would leave Campbell and join the RU program. As a sophomore, Thompson, a 5-foot-8 point guard, averaged 8.4 points and 2.1 assists on 40% 3-point shooting.
Earlier this week, the Big South told Thompson he would not be eligible to play immediately.
The conference also turned down as many as three other eligibility requests.
At the time, Big South Commissioner Kyle Kallander told members of the media, “We (the Big South) are looking at it in a different light than we have in the past. We obviously evaluated this very closely and had a lot of discussions about this last year when the NCAA changed the transfer rule.”
Thompson’s current status is not known.
