Reason No. 842 to grind your teeth at the rules and workings of the NCAA: Before quarterback Tom Savage can transfer back to Rutgers, where he spent two years, he has to prove that staying at Arizona is a hardship.
Why shouldn't it be enough if the Cardinal O'Hara High graduate wants to leave Arizona, where he spent the fall semester, to return to play quarterback at Rutgers if coaches and administrators at both schools are good with the move?
Instead, Savage issued a statement last month that his reason for leaving Arizona had nothing to do with new coach Rich Rodriguez's offensive system or whether it fit Savage's playing style. Wouldn't that be a perfectly good reason to transfer, that maybe a dropback quarterback such as Savage wouldn't see the field in the new coach's system, that this new coach, who likes running QBs, didn't recruit Savage and probably wouldn't have recruited him? Shouldn't that be enough?
Instead, the fact that Savage is dealing with a family illness is the only factor that matters. What if he wasn't? (Unfortunately, he is, I'm told). Savage, who didn't return a phone call, could transfer again and sit out another season and become eligible. But because he's already done that once when he transferred from Rutgers to Arizona, he would lose a season of eligibility, since he must complete his four years of eligibility in a five-year window. (He also needs the hardship waiver to drop down to the next level to play right away since he already has transferred once. He'd have to go to a Division II or III school to play next year without a hardship waiver).
We're betting that the NCAA does the right thing and grants Savage his hardship waiver. If it happens, don't be surprised if he goes back to Rutgers and competes for the starting QB job next fall. That would be a fascinating story, a player basically admitting he was wrong to leave, a coach willing to take him back. When has a player transferred and then transferred back to the same school?
There are larger issues here about the rights of athletes. St. Joseph's has gotten hammered nationally for not signing a waiver for basketball player Todd O'Brien, who graduated and enrolled at Alabama-Birmingham but can't play because St. Joe's didn't sign a waiver agreeing to let him play. Regardless of the particulars of the O'Brien case and what sort of betrayal his former school feels, the fact that O'Brien isn't free to play is a cause celebre of sorts.
