Andy Staples criticizes NCAA over Tez Walker, Darrell Jackson waiver denials

The transfer portal continues to be one of the biggest issues in college football with players being able to to switch schools without sitting out a year like they had in the past. As programs across the country have called for stricter rules from the NCAA regarding its transfer waiver process, however, we’re beginning to see players pay a seemingly unfair price.

The NCAA’s current rules say that players who transfer more than once without having graduated require a waiver to be immediately eligible. That has led to North Carolina transfer receiver Tez Walker and Florida State transfer defensive lineman Darrell Jackson both being denied just weeks ahead of the 2023 season.

As On3’s Andy Staples explained, that’s not a good look for the NCAA.

“In the offseason, the schools complained a bunch,” Staples said. “They felt like the one-time transfer was fine but the transfer rules were being abused. People were transferring multiple times and they said they didn’t want that. They said they wanted that second transfer, if you hadn’t graduated, they wanted it to be really tough to be able to play right away. Now a couple waivers have been denied and I guess the schools got what they wanted but they, because they did this, and the NCAA look like a bunch of jerks when you take some of these stories into account.

“I’ve always said the NCAA needs a vice president of common sense because the VP of common sense could look at these situations and go, ‘if we did this, would anybody care if we didn’t follow the exact letter of the rule? Because if we follow the exact letter of the rule, we’re gonna look like a bunch of jerks. So instead of that, maybe we just let this one go.’ But that never happens at the NCAA and you get situations like this.”

Staples was particularly critical of the situation with Walker. Although the receiver has technically transferred twice, his first came in 2020 after North Carolina Central canceled its season due to COVID and he moved to Kent State.

Additionally, he is a Charlotte native who cited wanting to be closer to his grandmother as the reason he transferred to Chapel Hill. Staples argued that because Walker never played before his first transfer, the NCAA should view his case as a special circumstance and grant him a waiver.

“The Tez Walker situation is a little bit crazy,” Staples said. “…He says his grandmother was his rock. She’s not really able to go Ohio and see him play. He would like her to be able to see him play there, would like to be a few hours away from her. It’s an interesting situation because he never actually played at NC Central. He left there because of a situation where they canceled the season, which was out of his control obviously. He put out a statement and the way he puts it is ‘I’ve only played football at one school. So to me, this is really my first transfer.’ He originally was gonna go to East Tennessee State. Had a torn ACL. Got a chance the following year at North Carolina Central. This guy has been through quite a bit.

“…If you’re the NCAA, that’s the kind of waiver in the old days you would’ve granted. Why are you not granting that? I get that you want to make it tougher. You don’t want people to just hop from school to school to school and you don’t want to make it easy for coaches to tamper. But this is a waiver you would’ve granted in the old days. So why not just grant it? Now you look like a bunch of jerks and this guy’s not gonna get to play.”

Although Jackson has previously played at both Maryland and Miami, he similarly cited the reason for his transfer to Florida State as being he wanted to be closer to his mother.

“He’d like the transfer to Florida State to be closer to his mother and that’s perfectly understandable,” Staples said. “His mom is close by. He’s from Gadsden County, which is very near Tallahassee. This one makes a little more sense why it got denied. It might’ve gotten denied in the old days, too. …Here’s the thing, he’s close to his mom. He’s gonna be able to play next year so he’ll have a chance to be with her. It sounds like Florida State is supporting him wholeheartedly through this and he really enjoys being with those teammates. So that could wind up being an OK thing.”

Still, these two instances show that the current NCAA transfer waiver process has a long way to go. Although it is a frustrating reality, Staples said he doesn’t want the schools to complain because they were the ones calling for stricter guidelines.

Now that they’ve seen how that looks, it’s on them to come up with a better solution.

“I don’t want indignation from the administrations at Florida State and North Carolina,” Staples said. “I don’t mind it from the fans. But I don’t want any indignation from those schools because ADs and coaches have been the ones banging the drum for a more strict waiver process for that second transfer. They’re the ones that wanted it. So you don’t get to complain about it now when it didn’t work out for your team. If you don’t like it, guess what? The schools are the NCAA. Change the rules. You could create a situation where, if there is a mitigating circumstance, for example Tez Walker’s freshman season being canceled, then you can make it where he can play.

“This is the problem with trying to be hard and fast with every rule and trying to put a cap on these things and make sure these guys can’t move around. Because you’re gonna have times and situations where you’re gonna need some grace from the NCAA. Perhaps you should’ve thought of that before you demanded stronger transfer rules. Before you demanded that the person making a second transfer as an undergrad has to meet a very high threshold to get a waiver. Otherwise, you don’t get to complain about this.”