Detroit gets a transfer... that might play next month

[a3uge]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24379680/colorado-transfer-jenkins-will-land-at-detroit

Colorado transfer Chris Jenkins is headed to Detroit... and he could potentially start playing in time for conference season. He's a redshirt freshman that decided to transfer in November. I'm not sure if the NCAA will make him sit out until next season, but they'll probably end up doing something incredibly inconsistent with what they've been ruling. I guess he transferred because Colorado wasn't going to play him and he'd be a starter in his hometown Detroit... either that or he got confused that Colorado STATE was the program with the crazy coach that drinks at college parties, not Colorado Boulder.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

set the ncaa on fire.

[valpotx]

It would be an absolute farce if he is allowed to play immediately at Detroit.  Keith Carter has a legitimate reason to transfer closer to home and has to wait 1 year, and this guy might play immediately??

[Pathfinder]

If he got a waiver it would be because without it, he'll only get 2 and a half years of eligibility, due to the NCAA 5 year rule, and they'll just decide that that is unfair. Even if he gets the waiver, he'd only get 3 and a half years of college ball. Carter, even after sitting out, will get  4 years of eligibility, including last year's half season at St. Lou.

[wh]

If he got a waiver it would be because without it, he'll only get 2 and a half years of eligibility, due to the NCAA 5 year rule, and they'll just decide that that is unfair. Even if he gets the waiver, he'd only get 3 and a half years of college ball. Carter, even after sitting out, will get  4 years of eligibility, including last year's half season at St. Lou.

That's exactly what happened to Carter. He played 3 games in semester 1 of his freshman year before quitting and transferring to Valpo. He then had to sit out the spring and fall semesters, but is now considered a 2nd semester sophomore. So, he both sat out a year and lost a year of eligibility. So, if this guy doesn't have to sit that would be totally inconsistent with what Carter had to do. That's the point being made.

[Pathfinder]

I'm just saying here's how the NCAA would look at it:

Jenkins has never suited up for a college game, ever. If Jenkins is not granted a waiver, he will get a grand total of 5 semesters/two and one-half years playing ball (he would participate in 3 different seasons). This is because of the 5 year rule, which requires you to use up your eligibility within 5 years of starting school. If they grant him a waiver - and I'm not saying they should - I think it will be with the idea that it is simply unfair to limit to him to 2.5 years of playing over just 3 seasons.

Carter played last fall and gets 3 years at Valpo, for a total of 4 seasons playing ball. Carter never applied for a waiver from the transfer rule. He applied for a medical redshirt year and that was denied, but that's not what Jenkins would be applying for. The medical redshirt rule normally requires that a player be redshirted due to season ending injury not later than the 7th game of the season, and Carter clearly did not meet either criteria. Without that waiver, Carter still participates in 4 NCAA seasons.

That seems unfair because Carter just played 3 games in his first season and gets just a half year this season, yet each counts as a "season" of play. But that is huge in NCAA land. In NCAA land, if you play one game, you can't take a regular redshirt season -you've burned a season of eligibility. If you are injured and out for the year in the 39th minute of game 7, you get a medical redshirt year; if you are injured in the first two minutes of game 8, however, you don't get a medical redshirt year. These lines are pretty arbitrary but they are clear and bright and so the NCAA likes to enforce them. Of course, that second situation can be exactly when they will grant you a waiver of the medical redshirt year. But because Carter came back from his injury and played 21 minutes in the 10th game of the year, and pretty clearly could have physically played in future games had he not transferred, he was never a strong candidate for a waiver of the medical redshirt rule. Also, note that if Carter would sit out the rest of this year, he actually would still have 3 more full seasons of eligibility on top of his semester (year for athletic purposes) at St. Louis. He and Drew are choosing to burn a season of eligibility on a half season of play this year.

Hardship transfers are much more loosey-goosey than medical redshirt transfers. Unlike medical redshirt rules, there is no fixed criteria. In theory, they are supposed to be for the athlete to assist an injured or ill family member; in practice they were first extended to any family hardship and now seem increasingly arbitrary, any time it seems "fair" to let the player play and there are no signs of tampering. It may be that Jenkins has a good case for a true hardship waiver, though if so I'm not aware of it. But I think the fact that he hasn't played college ball at all, a year and a half out of high school, is what would drive the NCAA to give him a hardship waiver, if it does. If Jenkins is not given a waiver from the transfer rule, the 5 year rule will limit him two and one-half seasons of play, or three college basketball seasons in which he would play instead of 4. (Note that unlike Carter, he also couldn't extend his eligibility by one semester by not playing this year, again because of the 5 year rule).

Again, I'm not saying the NCAA should grant Jenkins a waiver. But if they do, the differences are 1) Carter sought medical redshirt waiver - harder to get, more specific criteria; Jenkins seeks hardship waiver, more vague criteria; 2) Carter will play in 4 collegiate seasons without waiver; Jenkins without waiver will play in max of 3 collegiate seasons. That would be their logic. If you want to argue it is unfair, I think you've got a good argument. But Jenkins' situation is not "exactly" what happened to Carter; the results for him without a waiver are greater than the results for Carter without a waiver; and that's why the NCAA would not view them as totally inconsistent. I think they would see any loss of effective eligibility in Carter's situation as largely one of his own making, and not see Jenkins' case that way.

I'm actually skeptical that they will grant Jenkins' waiver request.

[wh]

Good points. Good post.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

If you are injured and out for the year in the 39th minute of game 7, you get a medical redshirt year; if you are injured in the first two minutes of game 8, however, you don't get a medical redshirt year.

While we're looking up past predictions, obviously this guy never ended up playing.

Also, this is incorrect.  It's not done by number of games; it's by the 30% mark of your team/sport's season, because obviously more games in baseball than basketball than football, etc.  So you have to be in fewer than 30% of your team's games, and none after the halfway point.

For instance, for us, that would have been 10 games or fewer, plus none after the halfway point (Oakland I, the second conference game).

So it's even worse than I thought in the O/U thread...Nick Davidson played a whopping total of 10 minutes in 5 games after that point, and gave up a year of eligibility for it.

Ye gods.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140602/SPORTS0202/306020100/Former-Spartan-Brandan-Kearney-join-Detroit-basketball-team

Fits in this thread...if you mean "November" by "this month".