NCAA Sets New Precedent with Passing of First-Time Waiver
College football continues to evolve: a player that declared for the NFL Draft and signed with an agent has been cleared to return to his college football program, Arizona State.
This is the first time something like this has ever occurred. The normal rule of thumb is once you leave and sign, you’re no longer a student-athlete. We are living under much different circumstances than ever before with the COVID-19 pandemic still hovering over everyday life, and it appears to be the reason that Michael Turk was allowed to return to Tempe and compete with former FSU punter Logan Tyler.
It is a little odd that the driving force behind the waiver is the pandemic, though. The spread of the virus didn’t affect the end of the college football season, and the NFL Draft was only forced to change to a virtual format. So, what are we really onto with this decision, and is this another domino to fall in creating a new normal, after the Name, Image, Likeness, revelation? We may be headed that direction, and it could be a lot sooner than anyone imagined. This decision sets the precedent of giving a new professional athlete the chance to walk that life-altering decision back.
If the old rule goes the way of the dodo, what does the future of recruiting look like? If this becomes the new normal, then high school seniors could become a little more timid to sign on the line without knowing for sure if the player who was starting at his position before him is 100% gone to the NFL. Staffs have been recruiting over guys since the beginning of the sport, but this would add an unforeseen wrinkle that could cause all involved to hesitate on a decision.
It’s not just incoming players who would feel the effects of this. Consider players like FSU's Tamorrion Terry and Marvin Wilson, two FSU athletes who decided to return for one more season in the Garnet and Gold. What if their original decision was to dip their toes in the water and then they decided to change their minds? The same thing could be said about Dalvin Cook falling to the second round of the draft a few years ago. What if he wasn’t happy with that and decided he wanted a waiver to return?
How this gets handled going forward will determine if this becomes the new standard. If more players from this year’s class who went undrafted came forward and wanted the same waiver granted, then you would have to imagine the NCAA has no choice but to say yes. Does every player get a pass because of the pandemic?
Many receive suspect advice from individuals in their camps and are often not in a position to turn the “advice” down. In 2019 alone, 133 players left college early for the NFL Draft, and 44 players went undrafted, a whopping 34%. We’ve seen this in Tallahassee with names like Travis Rudolph and Stanford Samuels III.
