Masoli Follow-Up: “Academic Motivation”

On September 3, 2010, Jeremiah Masoli’s was cleared to compete immediately following an appeal to the NCAA Division I Subcommittee for Legislative Relief. The bylaws, as written, indicate that Masoli could not be given a transfer waiver by virtue of his participation in Bowl Subdivision Football. However, the NCAA has often granted these requests when the transfer is academically motivated.

In 2007, the NCAA membership refused to accept a rule change that would have allowed all graduate student transfers to be eligible immediately if they met specific conditions. The membership preferred a waiver process to resolve cases that were academically motivated.

Key Issue Goes Underreported In Recent Quinnipiac Titile IX Decision

As widely reported this past July, Judge Underhill of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut granted an injunction to the Quinnipiac University women’s volleyball team that will allow the players to compete during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Judge Underhill found the proposed elimination of the women’s volleyball team ran afoul of Title IX and its mandate for gender equity in education. There are multiple ways for an athletic department to comply with Title IX, but the most common approach is to maintain “proportionality” between the percentage of athletic opportunities available to each gender at the school and the overall percentage of each gender in the student body.

NCAA Eligibility: Masoli Update 9/3/10 PM

As a follow up to this morning's post, the NCAA Division I Subcommittee for Legislative Relief accepted Jeremiah Masoli's appeal this afternoon and cleared him to play for Ole Miss immediately. An analysis of the decision will be forthcoming.

NCAA Eligibility: Masoli must sit out

Mississippi Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s request for immediate eligibility for the 2010-11 NCAA Football season was denied Monday by the NCAA. Masoli applied for a graduate-student transfer waiver. The NCAA denied Masoli’s waiver and he must wait until the 2011-12 season to compete. Masoli was not able to compete for his former school, the University of Oregon, after a dismissal from the team after he pleaded guilty to a felony second-degree burglary charge.

The NCAA announced in a press release that Masoli’s waiver request was “contrary to the intent of the waiver. The waiver exists to provide relief to student-athletes who transfer for academic reasons to pursue graduate studies, not to avoid disciplinary measures at the previous university.” NCAA, NCAA issues waiver decision for Ole Miss student-athlete, http://www.ncaa.org/ (last visited August 31, 2010).