Kobe Baynes’ decision to transfer from Louisville to Kansas on Monday night was made possible by a number of recent overhauls in NCAA transfer regulations.
One rather important hurdle remains, however, before Baynes is eligible to play for the Jayhawks this season — and Kansas is confident he’ll be able to overcome it.
Baynes, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman, decided to leave the Cardinals on Aug. 16 and, after a whirlwind recruiting process, settled on the Jayhawks. He flew from Louisville to Kansas City on Tuesday morning, reached campus by early afternoon and was issued a jersey, No. 70, so he could join his new teammates in practice on Wednesday.
That Baynes ended up at Kansas happened because the coaching staff still had a scholarship available to give him. Over the summer, the NCAA imposed a two-year moratorium that will allow teams to surpass the 25-player limit in each recruiting class as long as they do not issue more than 85 scholarships. The Jayhawks, for years, have been well below that maximum, though they’re finally on the cusp of reaching it.
Baynes said Illinois, Syracuse, Memphis, USF and Bowling Green also offered him an opportunity to play because they had scholarships open. Other coaches pleaded with him to wait to decide until December, when the semester ended, so they could offer him one as well — something he did not want to do.
Typically, players who decide to transfer are now immediately eligible at their new schools thanks to an overhaul in regulations adopted by the NCAA in April 2021.
Where Baynes’ case gets moderately complicated comes down to the timing of his decision. Players who play a fall or winter sport and wish to transfer and be immediately eligible must have their names entered into the transfer portal by May 1.
Baynes did not do that, because on May 1, he believed his future was still at Louisville. Thus, by NCAA regulations, Baynes isn’t eligible to play this season, and he will not be able to redshirt since he already did that in 2020, when he was a freshman.
But Baynes is planning to appeal to the NCAA under what is formally known as a run-off waiver. In short, that waiver is available to players who are seeking immediate eligibility at a new school because a previous coaching staff had no intention of playing him or her again.
It sounds complicated, but only because it requires the player’s former school to sign off on the move. A copy of the waiver was provided to the Journal-World, and it is a one-page document that asks the athletic director of the former school to verify four conditions:
1. The player was no longer given an opportunity to practice or play for reasons outside of his or her control;
2. The player was not dismissed from the team or school for any reason;
3. The player is athletically eligible;
4. The player is in good academic standing.
In most cases, the hardest condition to meet is the first — and that may be true for Baynes. He was listed as the backup right tackle on Louisville’s depth chart at the start of training camp, which suggests that Louisville intended for him to have a substantial role this season. (Baynes, in theory, could argue it was a projection made by the university’s sports information department and not in touch with the coaching staff’s beliefs.)
“I just wanted a change of scenery,” Baynes said by phone Monday night. “I love the guys at Louisville, the coaches — Coach (Scott) Satterfield, he’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them and their program. I just felt like I wanted a change of scenery.
“I’ve been there — and this isn’t even a shot at them or nothing like that — but they had a lot of changes in the offensive line with (different coaches each of) the past three years.”
Ultimately, it will be up to Louisville athletic director Josh Heird to decide whether he wants to overlook the specifics of Baynes’ contentions and allow him to leave. If he does, Baynes will be free to join the Jayhawks and play in games as soon as the terms of the waiver are reviewed and accepted by the NCAA.
When that would be remains uncertain. Waivers are reviewed within 21 days of receipt and are not expedited for any reason. It’s conceivable Baynes could be eligible to play in the season opener against Tennessee Tech on Sept. 2; he also may need to wait until the Sept. 17 game at Houston, assuming the waiver is filed this week.
It’s also conceivable that Louisville or the NCAA declines Baynes’ waiver and he’s ineligible to play this season. In that case, he’d still be able to practice with Kansas, and, as someone who was a freshman in 2020 when the NCAA granted an additional year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he would have three years left to play.
The future doesn’t matter to Baynes or to Kansas, though. They want him to be able to play right away — and they’re going to do everything they can to make it happen.
