Junior center Bola Olaniyan reaches for the ball during the tip-off of SIU's 66-60 loss to the Northern Iowa Panthers in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Olaniyan was granted release from his scholarship Monday.
The grad transfer rule is certainly a factor for the rise, but that accounts for just 118 of those names this spring and early summer.
A big reason is transferring doesn't carry the stigma it once did. Often, a player would leave a program because he had baggage or couldn't get along with the coach and needed a fresh start.