By Donte Medder |Staff Writer|
Student athletes attending multiple schools during college is becoming a popular trend among student athletes.
Transferring has gained attention based off the sheer number of transfers per year.
The rise of student athletes transferring from school to school has brought an elevation in competition. This is evident with the recent with success of schools such as Dayton University and Iowa State University. Schools dependency on transfers was rewarded by deep runs in the 2014 NCAA basketball tournament.
This was also shown among football players such as Cam Newton and Johnny Manziel. Newton arrived on the University of Florida’s campus in 2007 after playing with Tim Tebow for two years. After running into some legal trouble, Newton eventually transferred to the University of Auburn and won both the Heisman trophy and National Championship.
Manziel originally transferred to the University of Oregon. After being told he would not be able to beat out Oregon’s present quarterback Marcus Mariota, he transferred to Texas Agriculture and Mining (A&M) where he won a Heisman trophy as a sophomore.
Although some of these student athletes choose to transfer down to lower levels of competition such as mid majors, Division II or National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) level schools, some choose to transfer up in order to get more exposure on a larger stage and wider audience.
“I looked at transferring as a chance to raise my NBA draft stock,” said Jordan Clarkson, former Missouri guard and NBA draft prospect.
“It was an opportunity to showcase my skills on a bigger stage, which was something I felt I had to do,” continued Clarkson.
Student athletes like senior guard Kirby Gardner from CSUSB opted to transfer back as an opportunity to be closer to his family.
“I saw coming back as an opportunity for my family to see a lot of my games,” said Gardner.
Vanderbilt sophomore guard Eric McClellan chose to transfer after his coaches were fired in his freshman season at the University of Tulsa.
“I had no intentions on transferring from Tulsa, but once schools started contacting me who I never thought would be interested, I had to take a better look at the opportunity,” said McClellan.
McClellan chose to transfer to the University of Vanderbilt based off stability and opportunity.
CSUSB has thrived on transfers looking for an opportunity to showcase their ability and skills. Thirteen players from the 2014 team did not begin their college career at CSUSB. With seven seniors leaving, Head Coach Jeff Oliver will have to call upon talented experienced transfers to help lead his team to another Conference Championship and NCAA tournament berth.
The trend of athletes transferring is growing for student athletes.
It’s also becoming more common every year for universities to help and give student athletes the exposure to the professional teams they want.
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