Meet Erin Abbey, the woman who delivered the good news on Rahsul Faison

Erin Abbey continued to wait for the call that seemingly would never come. She, like most, held out hope that it would. She’d always keep her phone close by.

For the last eight months, Abbey had been working to get South Carolina running back Rahsul Faison cleared by the NCAA to play this season. She’s the Senior Associate Athletics Director – Compliance Services. In her role, she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Office of Compliance Services at South Carolina.

Then on Monday afternoon, around 4 p.m., Abbey’s phone rang. It was the NCAA. She was in the middle of teaching her SPTE 240 – Business Law class at the university, where she also works as an adjunct professor. She was hoping this was the call she’d been waiting so long for.

“Generally, when the NCAA has a waiver decision of any sort of magnitude, they will call you,” Abbey said. “So I stepped out to take the call, and I was just so excited for that yes, that the waiver was approved. Thanked the folks at the NCAA for all of their hard work and dedication as well. And then hung up, and I had my list of folks I needed to call.”

First on that list? Head coach Shane Beamer. She admittedly didn’t check to see if he was in the middle of practice or doing something important. But nothing was bigger than this. Beamer had been eagerly awaiting this moment just as much as she had been.

“I do remember saying, I said, ‘This is probably the most memorable call I’ve had in my compliance career. But Rahsul’s waiver is approved. He’s eligible. He’s good to go,'” Abbey said.

Beamer, of course, was thrilled to hear the good news that his transfer running back was now free and able to play. Abbey then told him that he could go ahead and call Faison to relay the information to him, which he proceeded to do.

“(Faison) was at home already in the afternoon, so I FaceTimed him and told him, and that was a pretty cool moment that I won’t forget,” Beamer said. “Just seeing the joy in his face, and all he kept saying was just, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,’ because he’s so appreciative of the opportunity.”

At last, the wait is over for Faison and South Carolina. But the journey to get to a ruling was a long one, to say the least. In any case where there’s a waiver, there are multiple hoops to jump through. And that’s just to get it to the NCAA.

“We’re reviewing the merits of the waiver, you know, what lane it should fit in, as to why we’re requesting relief with the NCAA,” Abbey explained. “And then we have an institutional statement, a student athlete statement, collecting documents, data records, whether that’s from the student or working collaboratively with other schools or individuals associated with the case, to get that and to package it and formulate it, and then give it to the NCAA.”

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The first iteration of Faison’s waiver was submitted towards the end of February, only to be denied. While it was disappointing, Abbey said she and the compliance staff had to reevaluate and look for a different avenue to get the answer they were looking for. She also understood that the NCAA had other items on its plate, which only slowed the process down.

South Carolina also needed items and information from Faison’s previous stops. He originally enrolled at Marshall in 2019 but didn’t play football as he grayshirted in the fall. In 2020, he enrolled in online classes from Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he didn’t play football.

Starting in 2021, Faison spent two seasons at Snow College, but he didn’t appear in any games until his second year with the program. Then he was at Utah State for the last two years. While there, he rushed for more than 1,800 yards and 13 touchdowns.

“It was mostly, you know, you’re just not getting the information, but then you’ve got to piece it together and formulate the best possible, I don’t want to say argument, but assertion to the NCAA as to why this student-athlete is warranted relief,” Abbey said. “So the document collection process did take some time.”

Just last year, South Carolina’s compliance department worked on 33 waiver cases. Abbey said they average between 25 to 35 per year. Faison’s proved to be the most challenging of the bunch.

“I’ll say this is probably our biggest waiver file we have for a student-athlete,” she said. “Many, many, many documents.”

In the time when she wasn’t getting any promising answers, she couldn’t help but feel some level of doubt. There were days when she’d repeatedly get the same texts from people wondering when an update would come. She felt it was like Groundhog Day, wondering to herself when it would be over.

But Abbey then remembered that this was about Faison and nobody else. As she met with him throughout the process, she could tell how passionate he was about football and being a Gamecock.

“This is a man they found in Rahsul that could make an impact. We want to support them and that kind of weighs on you, particularly when you have to ask the student-athlete for statements and the challenges and hardships he endured early on and through his collegiate career,” Abbey said. “Having to have someone rehash that is never pleasant. But he had a smile on his face and was super collaborative. That makes it more rewarding when you have those frustrating days.”

Faison was just grateful that Abbey and her staff continued to work hard to try and get this done.

“She played a major role,” he said. “Once they took things over in compliance, I feel like things started moving a lot quicker with the decision. I’m just grateful and thankful that they were able to help me out and just be there for me.”

Once the waiver was approved the second time around, Abbey walked into her office the next morning, relieved to check Faison’s name off the waiver board.

Soon after, she went back to her normal everyday duties. She found herself with three more potential waivers to work through, albeit none of them to this degree. When she went back to teach her class on Wednesday, she couldn’t help but share the good news that she couldn’t discuss before.

“I did teach yesterday, and I was like, ‘How many people follow our football team?’ And they raised their hands. And then I’m like, ‘How many people saw that running back got eligible?’ Yeah, so I was like, ‘Well, that was the call that I had to go take.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, that was you? That’s awesome!'”

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