September 6, 2008

Rivals.com

At the College Basketball Roundtable each week, we ask each member of the coverage staff for their opinion about a topic in the sport.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Is the NCAA entertaining too many "hardship" waivers?

I must admit that the increasing use of the hardship waiver has and will continue to come under fire. I don't know all the variables that are involved in the decision making of who does or doesn't qualify but let's face it, some student-athletes - and universities for that matter - will at times try and take advantage of it. Remember that the hardship case also frees up a scholarship. If it's mutually beneficial for a kid to transfer, legitimately or not, it could be the best scenario for both the player and the school. The NCAA might want to deal with the perception of this, above board or not, because how the public views this is what really matters. College athletics is a BIG TIME business, and the last thing the NCAA needs is someone questioning it's ethics (wait a minute isn't that done everyday anyway).

Having said that, we have to focus on the process - not what looks questionable. As someone who had to redshirt, I've seen firsthand the impact losing a year of competition can have on a student athlete. It affected my abilities on the court as well as in the classroom. I dealt with depression and at times struggled with school. It was the first time in my life that I had lost the one thing that I excelled at. The rule is a good one - so long as it isn't abused.

It used to seem like every three or four years, you would hear about a player applying for a hardship waiver. This year, I can think of four off the top of my head, including two at one school: Georgetown's Julian Vaughn, USC's Alex Stepheson and Seton Hall's Keon Lawrence and Herb Pope.

It makes you wonder just how legitimate some of these claims are. Tyler Smith had a good reason to leave Iowa and move back to his home state of Tennessee last year: His father was dealing with lung cancer and died soon after his son enrolled at Tennessee.

Seton Hall says Pope, who is from the Pittsburgh area, is moving closer to home because his family is dealing with problems. The Seton Hall campus is 360 miles away from Pittsburgh. I don't see how Pope can help them from that distance.

I just hope the NCAA seriously investigates each case and doesn't hand out hardships lightly. Otherwise, a lot of players will be encouraged to bend the rules.

I remember being stunned when the NCAA granted a hardship waiver to allow Tyler Smith to be eligible immediately at Tennessee after transferring from Iowa. Not that Smith didn't have a valid reason ? his father had been diagnosed with lung cancer and died before Tyler ever played in a game for the Vols ? but the NCAA had not been known for relaxing its transfer rules.

Maybe the collegiate governing body didn't realize it was opening Pandora's Box when it allowed Smith's immediate eligibility. Now applying for the "hardship" waiver is de rigueur. Players are citing "family issues." A Georgia Tech tight end who transferred to Alabama said it was a hardship because new coach Paul Johnson doesn't use tight ends in his offense. South Florida basketball player Gus Gilchrist is asking for a waiver pleading ignorance, saying he didn't know the ACC had a rule that required him to lose a year of eligibility if he transferred within the conference, which he did when he went from Virginia Tech to Maryland.

Folks, if waivers are granted on the basis of ignorance, welcome to the age of college free agency. This isn't what the NCAA had in mind when it granted Smith the chance to be nearer to his dying father. It doesn't have the time to investigate every claim of a problem within the family. It just feels like soon, guys will be asking to be eligible right away when an uncle twists his ankle.

NCAA president Myles Brand has talked about a kindler, gentler NCAA, one in which more attention is given to the players' needs.

In that regard, all these hardship waivers in football and basketball are good. The NCAA should relax some rules if a player needs to be close to home to deal with a tragedy. I also applaud the move to let graduated players transfer without penalty if another school offers a master's program that the original school did not.

At the same time, though, the potential to manipulate the system is great. And ? let's get serious ? there are coaches out there who will try to manipulate the system if they can.

I would like to see a system whereby a player first must request a waiver from the conference he is leaving. If that conference office signs off on it, the NCAA then would have to give its OK, as well.

There are conspiracy theorists out there who will say that conference offices play favorites among the league schools. I say that I don't think any conference office would stand in the way of a legitimate transfer.