First it was in football. Ohio safety and Syracuse commit Marquise Blair finished up his summer classes in June and thought he would be all set to enroll at SU a few months later.
In July the NCAA still had not ruled on if Blair‚Äôs summer classes satisfied the the organization’s¬†requirements and the safety missed the first weeks of SU‚Äôs summer session. Eventually the organization decided that Blair‚Äôs classes were not enough, which meant he would not come to SU.
Blair knew this might be an issue, but the fact that had he to wait so long is criminal. How difficult can it be to make a decision on classes? It certainly shouldn’t take over a month. This was no way to treat a student athlete.
If Blair’s road to ineligibility looks bad, SU basketball commit Moustapha Diagne’s looks even worse. Syracuse.com reported Sunday that Diagne enrolled in a two year college because he had been visiting family in Senegal and the only way he could get back into the country was if he was enrolled in a college by August 20th. That’s what his visa required.
So why wasn’t Syracuse the school he enrolled in? The NCAA has not yet ruled on one of the classes that Diagne took when he lived in Senegal before moving to the US in 2012. This kid’s whole SU career is just about in jeopardy because the NCAA took too long to rule on a single class from three years ago.
This is some next level BS. Diagne was held hostage by an organization that is supposed to be there to support him. Not having a ruling a week before classes start makes no sense. That’s too late; that’s way past a respectable deadline.
The class eligibility process must be reformed. This can’t continue. Let’s get real for a second though. We’re dealing with the NCAA, nothing’s going to change.
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Posted: Connor Morrissette
