ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I have a feeling this is just speculation - I'm not sure it's not as easy as - it didn't work out with Mark here and if the only thing stopping him from playing this season was the approval from Illinois - that we didn't want to get in his way.
According to the NCAA, a transfer must meet four criteria to be approved for a waiver:
— The transfer is due to documented, mitigating circumstances outside the athlete’s control and directly impacting his or her health, safety or well-being.
— The transfer must have been eligible athletically and academically and “in good standing” on the prior team.
— The student-athlete meets progress toward a degree at the new school.
— The previous school’s athletic department does not oppose the request.
http://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa...coaches-its-a-farce/306x12duyq9w1km8k5mcy1xdq
If you read the link, it seems to be more a question of opposing the underlying factual basis of the claims made in the waiver rather than supporting or opposing the waiver itself. That seems pretty clearly to be the mystery black box in all of this, IMO. Basically every single one of these waivers are pretextual, just writing some stuff down on paper to justify a player preferring to play at another school. Some schools will call a spade a spade on that, others won't, or may find themselves not in a position to. We were in the latter position on Mark Smith. Miami and Georgia have no reason to do the same for Thomas and Ford.