One of the biggest issues facing college sports is image likeness and more specifically for college basketball is the transfer portal. For Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News, the increased amount of transfers this year is due to one thing and one thing only; the potentially new transfer rule.

"I think that most athletes are proceeding under the leaf that the transfer rule will be changed in time for the next college athletic season in the fall and spring," DeCourcy said on Indiana Sports Beat. "I think that has contributed to the volume of transfers this year."

Though most transfers talked about are the 'big name' players in each sport, looking at the list of transfers from the past few years, DeCourcy sees a trend.

"A year ago I looked at all of the transfers on Jeff Goodman's list and almost all of them were guys who averaged like 2 points a game or like 4 points a game," DeCourcy explained. "It feels like there are more significant players that are moving this year, however, in my mind."

With the new transfer rule, players would be allow a one-time transfer to go to a new program without having to sit out a year like it is now. For DeCourcy, he doesn't see it as a good way to move the game forward.

"One of the things I have always liked before... he [head coach] has to look at me and say 'I have to put a year of free education and 1/15 of my roster into you before you play a game' so you have to be real sure that this guy is going to make the better and going to have a real use for him," DeCourcy said. "It's a bad system... I don't think it is going to be good for the athletes or the sport."

While the vote is still to be determined, it is slated for the end of May as of now. At that ruling, the NCAA could vote the rule or could vote to postpone it until 2021 which would impact the sport greatly in 2020.

In the meantime, another discussion remains ongoing. That is image likeness and the ability for institutions to pay its players. Fair market value is an important talking point and one that DeCourcy thinks will play a huge role.

"The one thing that would prevent it from having an impact [recruiting] would be the NCAA will have a panel that judges to see if these are fair market value," DeCourcy added. "I was really surprised according to the AP report that it was allowed or will be allowed, I thought that was the part they would fight or keep out, that active or established boosters would be excluded."

Because certain universities would have a clear distinct advantage on 'paying' players over others, the NCAA is looking at a huge challenge in making it a fair system for everyone.

Another major part of the image likeness discussion is how exactly it could be used to sway players.

"You [universities] can't go to him and say 'hey we will get you another deal'," DeCourcy said of how it would be used in instances when programs were trying to get players to come back to school instead of the draft. "They [the NCAA] don't want this to be something they [programs] are actively engaged in.. the players and the student athlete should be going out to maximize their value but not the program's trying to secure an arrival or retention."

The discussion has been ramped up even more due to the influx of players going overseas or now to the G-League instead of college. DeCourcy also noted that there will definitely be an unbalance when it comes to football and basketball compared to other sports at the universities.

For now, it is an interesting topic but one that will need to be addressed soon.

To listen to the rest of the interview and more, check out the tweet below.

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