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The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Thursday reversed an earlier ruling that had made a football player transferring to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ineligible to compete. That isn’t remarkable: the NCAA makes such rulings regularly. But the language it used in announcing the decision was.
The NCAA said in its statement Thursday that the association had received “new information” this week—information that “had not been made available by UNC previously, despite the school’s multiple chances to do so”—that led it to reverse its decision last month to declare Tez Walker ineligible, drawing harsh criticism from UNC officials. The team’s coach, Mack Brown, said at the time, “Plain and simple, the NCAA has failed Tez and his family and I’ve lost all faith in its ability to lead and govern our sport. They’ve messed so many things up as it relates to college football, and now their failures have negatively impacted the life of one of our own. Shame on you, NCAA.”
The association shot back, at one of its own members, Thursday. “It is unfortunate that UNC failed to provide this important information previously,” Charlie Baker, the NCAA’s first-year president, and Jere Morehead, the University of Georgia president who heads the association’s Division I board, said. “UNC’s behavior and decision to wage a public relations campaign is inappropriate and outside the bounds of the process UNC’s own staff supported. Had the UNC staff not behaved in this fashion and submitted this information weeks ago, this entire unfortunate episode could have been avoided.”
The NCAA did not say what the new information was or whom it came from. But Baker and Morehead added, “While we must be careful not to compromise a student-athlete’s right to privacy when it comes to sensitive issues, we want to assure the Division I membership and everyone watching how the new transfer rules are applied, that this meets the new transfer waiver standards.”
