Patterson’s attorney Thomas Mars—who also represents five other former Rebels seeking immediate eligibility from the NCAA following their transfers—made these accusations on Patterson’s behalf because at the time, “egregious behavior” by someone at the previous school was one of the few ways an undergraduate transfer could be granted a waiver to play immediately instead of sitting out one year. Ole Miss officials objected to the waiver, claiming the accusations within Patterson’s Mars-authored appeal weren’t true.
But earlier this month, the situation changed. The NCAA Division I Council—somewhat out of the blue—issued new guidance regarding transfer waivers. No longer was something as extreme as “egregious behavior” required. Now, a waiver could be granted if the following conditions were met:
a. The transfer is due to documented mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete;
b. At the time of transfer to the certifying institution, the student-athlete would have been athletically and academically eligible and in good standing on the team had he or she remained at the previous institution;
c. The certifying institution must certify that the student-athlete meets percentage-of-degree requirements; and
d. The previous institution’s athletics administration does not oppose the transfer.
“As soon as we saw that, we called Michigan,” Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork told SI.com Friday afternoon. A joint statement from Michigan and Ole Miss released Friday also credited the NCAA change as the impetus for the tidy conclusion of this case.
No longer did the transfer need to be contentious. If you consider the fact that Ole Miss is banned from playing for championships this season to be something that would affect Patterson’s well-being, then he fit sections A through C. And Bjork’s department was willing to remove its objection and satisfy section D if the accusations of egregious behavior were removed from Patterson’s application. “We’ve admitted all along that our NCAA case changed,” Bjork said. “Our head coach had to step down. Things changed. If someone was impacted by that, that’s up to them.”
There are five other Ole Miss players—also represented by Mars—who also are fighting to get eligible for the 2018 season. Bjork said Ole Miss would be happy to work with the compliance departments at the players’ new schools to help produce a similar result. That choice of wording seemed deliberate. It sounds as if the Rebels are willing to work with the other schools but not with Mars in this case.