NCAA waiver process messier than messy

STORRS — In his disappointment over the rejection of Evina Westbrook’s transfer waiver that would have made her immediately eligible for this college basketball season, Geno Auriemma was pointed. And those words Friday were pointed toward the NCAA offices in Indianapolis.

Two days later, in his hope that UConn’s appeal will be successful, the Hall of Fame coach pointed 357 miles to the south in Knoxville.

“Dave Benedict and I said what I think we felt and we need to say,” Auriemma said Sunday after the UConn women defeated Jefferson, 10340, in an exhibition game. “My disappointment was for Evina and for the process and for the way it unfolds.”

Yet if you expected Auriemma to simply regurgitate his criticism of the arbitrary nature of the NCAA’s decisions on transfers and his doubts if the collegiate governing body has any idea what goes on at campuses, you probably don’t know Auriemma well. He’s full of provocative surprises.

On this day, he started slowly. He explained the process and how the administrator from the departing athlete’s school can be supportive, “say it’s great for the kid she be at another place and I support it; not support it and be negative; or have no comment and just be noncommittal.”

Then Auriemma went all Rocky Top on us.

“Tennessee took the path of, ‘I have no comment on it. I have no position on it. I’m not supporting it. I’m not anti,’ which kind of hurt us to be honest with you. If they had come out strongly and supported it, then Evina would have got cleared. Which is kind of funny …

“The athletic director at Tennessee put out a statement (this

weekend) being incredulous one of the kids who wants to transfer to Tennessee wasn’t given a waiver. And he’s just absolutely perplexed how they could deny that.”

Like Westbrook who transferred from Tennessee to UConn last spring, Urgos Plavsic had waited on his waiver for immediate eligibility after transferring from Arizona State to Tennessee. Plavsic finally got word Saturday. His appeal on the NCAA waiver decision that had gone against him also had been denied.

“We are extremely disappointed — quite frankly, stunned — in this outcome, and feel strongly that very compelling facts support clearance for immediate eligibility,” Vols athletic director Phillip Fulmer said in a statement. “We are at a loss as to how this decision aligns with a mission of prioritizing the wellbeing of studentathletes, and we are struggling to provide an explanation to a deserving young man who stands to lose a year of eligibility.”

The irony wasn’t lost on Auriemma.

“I’m glad to see Phil and I agree that everything should be done for the welfare of the studentathlete,” Auriemma said. “And I think Phil supports that. Now we just need him to contact the NCAA, ‘You know, I support it.’ And then I’m sure there’ll be a different outcome with (Westbrook’s) appeal.”

The NCAA transfer rules for Division I men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and FBS football are complex and its waiver process is one giant abyss of gray. Every case is different. None of the decisions are discussed by the NCAA. The specifics of an athlete’s case are only as public as the athlete wants to make them. And without

specifics, we’re just guessing. Also, the NCAA in the past year or two has seemingly loosened and tightened up the target for a successful waiver. It’s all over the place. It’s messier than messy.

“Do people who work at the NCAA actually have any idea what goes on on campuses, or should this decision be actually made by people who are on campuses, people who have coached, people who have been administrators?” Auriemma said Friday. “Because one of the comments that was made by the committee was, what was happening to Evina was pretty much normal. Well if that’s normal, then everybody else that I talk to has been doing it the wrong way. Because if one of my players went through what Evina went through, I think there would be an investigation here, and it wouldn’t be normal.”

If UConn wins its appeal, Auriemma, after those comments, has shown up the NCAA staff as out of touch, perhaps incompetent, and its transfer process as substantially flawed. The staff in Indianapolis had time to study everything, evaluate the facts, understand all the relative comparisons and then within a week have it overturned by the kind of administrators Auriemma wanted in the first place?

If UConn’s appeal is lost, the most powerful voice in women’s college basketball has piled considerable advance pressure on the Division I Committee of Legislative Relief only to get a repeat of the answer he didn’t want to hear in the first place. And then what?

Are Auriemma, Benedict and Westbrook willing to then go public with the appropriate parts of the confidential 100page report to the NCAA that reveals the “specific and extraordinary” circum

stances that Westbrook endured at Tennessee to demonstrate Westbrook deserves to get the waiver?

For if they lose and do not, we are left to speculate on undocumented rumors of discipline problems under excoach Holly Warlick, etc. … and that’s dangerous business.

According to its May 2019 report, a total of 296 Division I waivers were considered by the NCAA from Feb. 1 to April 30 this year. Of them, 254 were approved. Among the 42 rejected, nine were appealed. Only three of the nine were overturned. This, of course, doesn’t include the recent slew of basketball decisions including the rejection of the appeal of South Carolina’s Destiny Littleton.

According to the NCAA website, this is the Committee of Legislative Relief, thus Evina’s judge and jury: Kristina Minor, Rutgers assistant athletic director for compliance; Eric Price, Pac12 associate commissioner; Stephen Alep, UTEP faculty athletics representative; Tim Parker, Virginia Tech senior associate AD; Stephen LaPorta, James Madison director of compliance; Jennifer Lawlor, Monmouth senior associate AD; and Meredith Eaker, Atlantic Sun senior associate commissioner.

Three women. Various conferences. The diversity of thought is there, yet depending on the outcome UConn fans will either be angry Westbrook’s appeal was denied or thrilled it was approved. The 60 guard could be the difference between a Final Four appearance or not.

There is a significant school of thought that all transfers should be eligible to play immediately. And given the NCAA’s obstinate refusal to fairly compensate athletes for decades, the argument is understood. Yet with the NCAA finally giving way to athletes being able to cash in on their likeness — those specifics must be hammered out — there also is an argument to be especially careful on basketball transfers.

Can you imagine with agents now being allowed to advise players, how guys would wait to see that they likely won’t go in the NBA Draft and then join forces at a school for a determined run at an NCAA title. That’s college free agency. And it could turn into lucrative career decisions. If that’s the way we’re going to go fine, but just don’t play the game that no one gets hurt by waivers.

Ask Stanford, Maryland, Baylor and Oregon how they like the idea of Westbrook playing this season for UConn. Ask UConn about how Jessica Shepard’s waiver in 2017 played a significant role in Notre Dame’s NCAA title.

“I can understand you can’t have wholesale transfers, but there are wholesale transfers,” Auriemma said. “So they’re all eligible or none of them are. That’s the way I feel. You either say yes to them all or say no to them all. You don’t get to decide who’s a yes and who’s a no, because that leads to a lot of other questions we can’t answer. Then it starts to lead to conspiracy theories. I don’t know if we want to be in the business of doing anything other than what’s in the best interest of that kid.”

On Friday, Benedict pointed out Tennessee didn’t oppose the waiver. Two days later, Auriemma said they didn’t support it and that’s why it wasn’t approved. We are left in the abyss of gray to argue an unsolvable mess. A perfect time for UConn to resume its rivalry with Tennessee Jan. 23 at the XL Center, isn’t it?