Wes Washpun and Paul Jesperson are two basketball players who left their past universities and found greener pastures at the University of Northern Iowa.

As transfers, they are forced to sit out a year. These players will help the Panthers, but in the grand scheme of college sports there is something wrong with the transfer process. While transfer students are forced to sit out a year, sadly their coaches are not when they move to a different school.

In Division I, Steve Alford, who signed a large contract at University of New Mexico, left a year later for his own betterment. For a coach to leave on his own terms while a student athlete cannot does not make sense.

It is especially bad when coaches move on to better opportunities and their past employers get sanctioned. Coaches Pete Carroll and John Calipari, among others, have provided their universities success in the short term but have since sullied their image in the big picture. These types of coaches have not been punished for their actions. They were able to leave before their universities got in trouble for their wrongdoings.

To solve the problem of coaches improving their long-term gains by cheating in the short term, three rules need to be implemented. One, if coaches are found guilty after “suspiciously” leaving their universities before the schools are caught for cheating, the coach should be banned from the sport for a year. Coaches should not be paid or compensated during the ban.

Two, if employers of coaches have games vacated during the coaches’ time there, the coaches should be required to pay back their salary in full for all of the vacated games. It is unacceptable for a coach to run a dirty program, leave and not be punished.

Three, coaches should not be allowed to leave their job after signing a contract barring personal hardship. Coaches should be expected to fulfill their contractual obligations.

These rules would prevent coaches from taking advantage of their universities to better their own aims. If student athletes are expected to honor transfer rules, coaches should be expected to honor rules that protect a university from having their image tarnished.