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Tez can play but not without parting shots from both sides.
In what, regrettably, turned out to be another public skirmish between UNC and the NCAA, Tez Walker’s transfer waiver was approved and the highly regarded wide receiver can play in all remaining eight regular-season games and up to a possible three in the postseason (ACC title, bowl and national championship).
How it occurred is, hopefully, the last chapter of another airing of grievances between Carolina and the NCAA that will be remembered long after Walker catches his last pass in light blue. And it will rekindle grunts by the ABC crowd that the Tar Heels got another break like the scandal of seven years ago.
Walker doesn’t deserve to be the name and face in this fight, but that he can play after his waiver was finally granted is the latest mess between the NCAA and its member institutions. ESPN’s Jay Bilas calls it “a gross waste of time and resources . . . athletes are unpaid and should be able to transfer.”
During the six months after Walker enrolled at UNC last January, the NCAA lumped him in with other undergraduate athletes who had transferred more than once and also had their waivers denied. That’s where the conflict heated up.
Most football players who are competing in their sixth seasons for their third schools are graduate transfers, which according to the NCAA is the difference between them and Walker, a junior at UNC with eligibility that now runs through next season.
The NCAA insists the membership schools make the rules and over the last year were unhappy with what seemed like a transfer portal out of control. So when Mack Brown bloviated “Shame on you, NCAA!” and said it chose “process over people,” the war of words was on.
With Mack’s media friends and fellow coaches standing up for Carolina, the NCAA shot back that it was “troubled” by the sharp remarks by Brown and athletics director Bubba Cunningham, adding that its staff had received some threats.
Brown doubled and tripled down on his responsibility to support his players, and it looked like Walker being eligible for a non-NCAA-sanctioned bowl game was his only relief. Then the news hit Thursday the waiver was approved because of new facts Carolina had submitted.
But it came with a claim that “UNC failed to provide important information previously” and of it said “this entire episode could have been avoided.” Bubba retorted that the NCAA is not accurate and Carolina had submitted everything it had along the way.
Walker should be ready to play Saturday, having taken dozens of snaps with and against the first units. And if as good as advertised, the Heels will be even more loaded on offense.
We may never find out why he is suddenly eligible due to privacy reasons, but maybe both sides will calm down and shake hands at the next NCAA convention. (And if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.)
Featured image via The News & Observer
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The NCAA is a corrupt institution, plays favorites, and has it in for Carolina because we beat them. That is the reason Walker was denied. They relented for only one reason, they were feeling the heat from outraged people across the country and there was a real chance this was going to end up in the courts, where they would likely have lost.
A war of words, huh? It’s a shame Mack didn’t get me to write his speech for him. I would have said, “This is a day that will live in infamy! Four score and seven years ago, I had a dream that Tez would play for UNC. Give me liberty for Tez or give me death. I regret that I had but one life to live for Tez. Mr. Baker, tear down this wall.”
But it took Mack, Bubba, the Gov, the Rams Club, Floyd the Barber, the Skipper and Gilligan, and the Attorney General (at least they called in the military and got a general) to do what me and Uncle Jed could have done in 5 minutes: Bribed them!