The Ongoing Eligibility Saga

Man, this is getting old.

I've run into yet another hiccup on my way to winning eligibility for the upcoming season. Maybe "winning" is the wrong word; there are a certain set of rules that apply to student-athletes, and if you meet them, you are eligible, and if you don't, you're not. It seems like a very cut-and-dried approach, and it should be easy to work through.

Months later, I have learned it's not quite that simple.

So what's so complicated about it, you ask? Part of it is the fact that eligibility runs over lots of different categories. You have to be medically eligible, academically eligible, amateurly (that's so not a word) eligible, NCAA-eligible, and so on. All of these categories requires paperwork, as well as somebody signing off that what I say I did is actually what happened. A doctor has to sign that I don't have any heart murmurs, my athletic director at my old school has to confirm that I only competed for three years, my old school has to confirm that I did actually graduate... you get the idea. On top of that, I have to pay $50 to register with the NCAA so that they, as an independent body, know that I exist. Gets to be a headache, a little bit.

I fall under a special group of student-athletes. Most of the time, when one transfers, they have to sit out a year before they compete again. Ardent followers of major college football and basketball will be familiar with this rule. But since I went to a D-3 school, and I graduated, and I've transferred (kind of) to a D-1 school, and...(Imagine that I'm listing off a list of odd, seemingly arbitrary rules for the next minute and a half while you zone out and drool on yourself.)...and if you fall into that category, you don't have to sit out a year! Incredibly, ALL OF THOSE RULES APPLY TO ME, so I actually get to use what's called the "one-time transfer exemption" to be immediately available to play.

Not so fast, say the fates. Apparently somebody at my old school had marked down that I had been recruited to play there, which would make me...*GASP*...ineligible! Upon receiving this information, I was crushed, to say the least. I was also confused, since we actually used to poke fun at our coach and tell him how lucky he was to have the best players on his team fall into his lap without having recruited them. I certainly don't remember being recruited, but maybe it was possible that I did something that I didn't realize, 4 years ago, would compromise my status? I re-read NCAA Bylaw 14.5.5.2.10.1 (I didn't make those numbers up), which explains the eligibility for the exemption, and I looked up NCAA Bylaw 13.02.12.1 (also not making up), which defines who has or has not been "recruited." Let's take a look:


13.02.12.1 Recruited Prospective Student-Athlete

Actions by staff members or athletics representatives that cause a prospective student-athlete to become a recruited prospective student-athlete at that institution are:

(a) Providing the prospective student-athlete with an official visit;

(b) Having an arranged, in-person, off-campus encounter with the prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete's parent(s), relatives or legal guardian(s); or (c) Initiating or arranging a telephone contact with the prospective student-athlete, the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardian(s) on more than one occasion for the purpose of recruitment.

(d) Issuing a National Letter of Intent or the institution's written offer of athletically related financial aid to the prospective student-athlete. Issuing a written offer of athletically related financial aid to a prospective student-athlete to attend a summer session prior to full-time enrollment does not cause the prospective student-athlete to become recruited.


Get that? If Coach had called me MORE THAN ONCE, or if the school had paid any of my travel costs to visit the school, thus making it an official visit, that counts as recruiting! I was surprised, shocked, amazed at the overwhelming absurdity that is the NCAA monolith... and that this still didn't apply to me.

That's right. None of that happened to me. I was never recruited, just like I thought. So now I have to go back to my old school, ask them why, exactly, they screwed up my record, prove it, fix it, have everyone sign off on it, then forward that to my new school so they can review it for NCAA compliance purposes.

Man, this is getting old.