NCAA on the clock: College football player in unique situation petitions for fifth year of eligibility
By Adam Spencer
Published:
NCAA rulings are wildly arbitrary, it often seems. Why some players are granted waivers to play right away and others aren’t is confusing and often doesn’t seem to be applied uniformly.
So, a decision regarding Rutgers LB Drew Singleton will be watched closely in the coming weeks.
Singleton declared for the 2022 NFL Draft following the conclusion of last season, which saw the Scarlet Knights finish 5-7 and on the wrong side of bowl eligibility.
But then something happened — Texas A&M had to drop out of the Gator Bowl, leaving Wake Forest without an opponent. Rutgers accepted the bid in the Aggies’ place, setting Singleton up for a difficult decision. He returned and played in the bowl game, but suffered an ankle injury. That prevented him from working out for NFL teams ahead of the draft, and he went unselected.
Now, he’s petitioning the NCAA for a fifth year of eligibility. He’s repaid the NFL trainer who was working with him before the draft, according to NJ.com:
“I decided playing in the game was the right thing for me to do,” Singleton told NJ Advance Media on Monday. “Now I just hope I’m not penalized for doing the right thing.”
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano is hoping the NCAA makes the common sense decision and grants Singleton a fifth year:
“I hope and pray that cooler minds prevail and he’s granted the year,” Schiano said. “Look, I get it. If a kid goes out and he gets paid to be an NFL player and then he wants to come back, I get that (he should be ineligible). But this isn’t that.”
We’ll see what the NCAA decides to do. Will it allow a player who declared for the NFL Draft to come back for another year? The circumstances for Singleton were certainly different than any other players who have found themselves in this position in the past.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
