Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Current and incoming Penn State players are free to transfer wherever they’d like in the wake of NCAA sanctions stemming from the university’s cover-up of decades of sexual abuse by a former assistant coach.

There will be no transfer penalty for players that would force them to sit out a season. Penn State must allow them to go wherever they want.

It would seem that most players who transferred would pick a school closer to home. A majority of the Nittany Lions hail from Pennsylvania or neighboring states.

Few of the players are from within SEC recruiting territory. More to the point: few Penn State players would seem to be of interest to Arkansas and Arkansas would seem to have little interest or connection to any players at Penn State.

However, we probably shouldn’t totally dismiss the idea that a roster refugee or two could consider the Razorbacks. Currently there are three coaches on staff who actively recruited the Big Ten in recent years.

Offensive coordinator Paul Petrino was at Illinois. Defensive coordinator Paul Haynes and linebackers coach Taver Johnson came to Fayetteville from Ohio State. All three joined the Razorbacks staff at the end of the 2012 season.

Would they use their connections? Could they?

Arkansas officials said they cannot comment on athletes not on campus “regardless of the instance/circumstances.” No help there, so we'll have to wait and see if the Razorbacks are one of the programs taking part in the Penn State roster raid.

In a perfect world the Penn State players/signees would be able to contact other programs as they see fit. But it's open season on the recruits and programs are allowed to make the first move when reaching out to players, their parents and former high school coaches.

Could the Razorbacks make an attempt at reaching out to current Nittany Lions players? Sure.

Would the Razorbacks make an attempt at reaching out to current Nittany Lions players? Perhaps.

Better question: Should they?

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CBSSports.com has more on the rule amendments in this rare circumstance where players are free to leave without penalty.