Lawyer for Cade Mays says NCAA appeal will cover 'toxic environment' at Georgia
Lawyers for Tennessee offensive lineman Cade Mays appear to have found the focus of their appeal regarding his eligibility as a transfer. Mays’ lawyer Gregory P. Isaacs says Mays was in a “toxic environment” at Georgia.
“Because of a variety of factors, it was a toxic environment that did not support Cade Mays’ well-being as a student-athlete,” Isaacs said, per Blake Toppmeyer of the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Mays, a former 5-star recruit, committed to UGA on Dec. 20, 2017. After 2 seasons with the Bulldogs, he entered the transfer portal on Jan. 8, 2020 and announced a transfer to Tennessee. As an undergraduate transfer to an FBS program, he is ineligible for 2020 without a waiver from the NCAA. News broke Monday that Mays’ waiver request was denied by the NCAA.
“We’re surprised and disappointed it was denied,” Isaacs told Knox News. “The mandate of the NCAA is to ensure the well-being and the future success of student-athletes. Cade Mays clearly meets these criteria.”
Numerous players and analysts and even a politician have called out the NCAA over the Mays’ waiver decision and voiced support for the #FreeCadeMays movement.
Tennessee and Georgia are scheduled to play on Oct. 10. We’ll see if the appeal works and Mays is able to suit up against his former team.
The toxic environment at our school goes without saying.
Just look at how our fans behave on this site.
LOL, yeah totally, just look at the trolls on this site
Or just ask Justin fields.
A truly toxic football program would leave more clues and hints than just a star QB wanting to play and be showcased at a major program.
^^ Classic example of toxic environment evidence.
Lie and deny. Make excuses. Rinse. Repeat.
Not to feed the troll here, because I respect Boxster, but the Fields decision was always weird to me. He stated early in the process it was due to a racial issue, then backtracked on that and said UGA was fantastic. He applied for a waiver with seemingly no public-facing reason other than “I want to go to a different school” and was granted immediate eligibility. How does the NCAA approve a waiver request that has no negative issues other than playing time, but deny someone who moved to be closer to family with poor health circumstances?
Long short, just be fair and transparent with the waivers, regardless of star status or position, and these arguments go away.
Common sense says it was a situation of saying one thing in public and one thing to the NCAA behind closed doors.
They ok’d Fields.
What do you think he said behind closed doors? Is it easier to tell the truth behind closed doors?
cbmckay, you are spot on.
Also, nothing I say can be evidence of UGA’s toxic culture… because I’m not affiliated with the UGA program.
Many of our fans were more publicly deranged over the Fields situation than they were about this Mays situation.
Just on this one site the amount of hand-wringing was epic.
All the evidence points to us having a toxic environment and not just about race.
Right, an environment “so toxic” that Fields sister is still enrolled at UGA and playing on the softball team.
Why don’t you go to he!!, you are disgusting. You no more are a Georgia fan than Cade Mays is a Georgia fan. Get lost.
LLLLLLLLLiar would be a much better screen name for your sorry a$$.
Calm down and stop being so belligerent. You make all the rational Ga. fans look bad with your silly rants.
ugarmyret is a good example of our toxic environment.
He consistently rages whenever an honest Dawg fan says something truthful and accurate.
You should have seen him when I predicted that Chubb and Michel would be special and that we had better take advantage or we would miss out on our best opportunity since ’80.
He blew a gasket when I predicted we wouldn’t take advantage, losing one we shouldn’t once again like we always do every year.
When both predictions panned out, all we heard was silence from him. He’s too low to admit when he’s wrong, but he’s not above derangement.
He’s beyond unhinged. He’s double posting. He rages. He’s beyond low morality and low character.
He’s just 1 reason our program is toxic.
NottttttttttaDawg, you are the sleaziest person on this board, bar none. It’s one thing to trash talk another program but disgusting and slimy to trash talk your own. You are gutter trash.
Toxic
LOL now it was a “toxic environment”??? Keep throwing it against the wall until something sticks.
I mean Fields transferred because of racial/toxic slurs. Seems like Mays did too. And anyone who isn’t leaving Georgia for that reason, is usually dismissed from the team..
Stupid. Even for a kid.
Someone gets offended easily
Offended? Hardly. I’d have to give a crap about your opinion to be offended.
When you say stupid stuff expect to be called out.
Can you defend your statement?
I’m assuming I’m off on the Mays reasoning for transfer correct?
Your whole comment is off. You can’t prove any of it.
I can’t but there were rumors for Fields. And a lot of players get kicked off of the team at Georgia. A whole lot.
BS. His little sister enrolled the same semester he left. He had never even suggested he left for any racial reason. Quit posting “rumors “ as fact.
Most players left because they were asked to leave due to unethical issues. Most ended up at Auburn, like Cam who was kicked out of Florida.
Three players = most ended up at Auburn? BS.
Well considering his father was suing them, um yeah.
So it wasn’t a “toxic environment” when he first applied for the waiver, but the appeal will be based on that. I think we won’t be seeing Cade play for the Vols this year.
I agree. I think his original waiver should have been approved and I was on his side. Not so much after this. I think it makes him look bad and takes attention away from the original blunder of the NCAA
I hope we don’t see him play. He didn’t seem bothered by the “toxic environment” when he broke ranks with Tennessee and came to Athens.
He’s doing Attorney-speak…the appeal was denied so he’s merely throwing dirt at Georgia…smacks of sore-loser. Take the verdict and move on. You don’t win all of your cases, ever.
Maybe you don’t win them all, but I’m familiar with this attorney and I wouldn’t bet against him. He is good.
I mean, the lawyer is going to do what he needs to do to get the verdict his client wants. He wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t. I’m more curious what evidence they have to sway a toxic environment claim.
I think the NCAA is garbage at making these decisions. Outside of not getting the playing time he wanted, what reason did Justin Fields give that warranted immediate eligibility? Why was that reason better than Cox or Mayes? They simply need to provide clear guidelines on their decision-making and save athletes and themselves the headache.
I agree about Mays and Fields and personally wouldn’t have cared one way or the other about Cox but Cox left after being suspended for Marijuana so his rejection made some sense.
The NCAA shoot themselves in the foot so often because of their closed door approach. There shouldn’t be any ambiguity as to why something was denied or approved, unless it’s due to confidentiality of student records, then you can say it was approved/denied due to X guideline instead of X reason.
It’s like the Roger Goodell policy in the NFL: “Because I said so.” That’s why there’s no transparency.
I bet we will. Any environment where your father is suing the university and you think you won’t feel the wrath of that? LOL. UGA is going to want to avoid the headlines and they certainly don’t need a black eye from it.
UGA already provided their affirmative approval for Cade to transfer anywhere, including within the SEC. That’s not the behavior of a school that has, or allows, a toxic environment. Cade will play if his attorneys smack talk has plausible supporting evidence. He’d deserve it, and UGA would deserve to have dirty laundry aired. Otherwise, he’ll sit out a year and forever carry the reputation as a ‘me first, at any cost’ kid. That will be a painful headwind for any type of post college career.
Unbelievable, this kid’s family has no integrity.
Mays needs to eat his MF crow and chill. It wasn’t a toxic environment for the 2 years he was playing and starting. Now it’s toxic because he didn’t get his way?
Easy. Your dad’s finger is not your problem. You starting is not a toxic environment. I’m not saying they didn’t, but if other players gave him trash over it, he isn’t helping his case with the amount of flinging dirt he is doing.
Try to think of this as more of a thinly veiled threat to the NCAA. If you want to continue to be arbitrary in your decision making we are going to try to make your hair hurt.
You have a “dawg” in this particular fight so perhaps being subjective is too much to ask, but frankly, all of the SEC is sick and tired of the NCAA not having to show their work. And it’s more than obvious that QBs are getting considerations that other position players can’t seem to touch. Transparency is pretty much nonexistent and why not let them know that the next argument for May’s eligibility is going to get real public, real soon.
Bama hit it on the head. These decisions need to be fair, applied globally, and most importantly, transparent. I don’t blame Mayes for doing what he has to in order to get his playing time. Something like “toxic culture” is subjective to the person anyways, so it’s not so much an indictment on UGA as it is that player’s feelings on the culture.
That’s fair. The NCAA has been a poop show for many years now. Georgia now being the center of two high profile cases.
That said, Mays (both father and Cade) are not without fault here. All of the other transfers that have occurred this off season have centered around injury or pandemic related items. Some I understand the immediate eligibility. Others I do not. However, none of them have tried transferring not only within a division, but directly to a deep rival.
If Cade signed at Georgia because of Pittman, he should have elected to transfer to Arkansas. Siblings go to different schools all of the time. “I wanna play with my brother” is not good enough to seek transfer to a direct rival because then it opens the floodgates to coaches poaching players to stockpile for super teams. It’s why the rule existed in the first place, to prevent a pseudo “free agency”.
For the record, I’m not upset that Mays wants to transfer. I’m upset with the amount of mud slinging he and his family have done against my school in order to attempt to transfer. He is a good lineman but did not perform otherworldly for us at Georgia so it’s difficult to see this as more than a karmic “hah, you deserve that.” If he would’ve said “hey, I want to go to Tennessee”, a lot of us would’ve been bummed but understood. But then he and his family rain down lawsuits and unfounded claims on Georgia…so yeah, it’s tough to feel sympathetic that he was denied.
Didnt Franks get his waiver at arky or was he grad transfer?
Franks was a grad transfer. He redshirted his freshman year so this past year when he got hurt was his RS Junior season.
You captured it Bamalicious. The NCAA generally provides no substantiation for its transfer rulings either way, and because the rulings appear to be completely inconsistent everyone has had enough. Not much different than the manner in which they apply penalties to schools based on infractions- and then bail out on punishing some of the worst offenders.
Time for all of us to walk away from the NCAA.
Wrong. Trusting UGA not to take your dad’s lawsuit out on you is like asking an escort to be only yours. UGA would rather the lawyers take this off their hands and bow out with face, while they hope the NCAA grants the waiver.
Yeah, this is a reach. Now I feel bad for the kid because his dad and lawyer are pushing this into a clown show. When something doesn’t go your way, you put the blame on something else. Shoot, it’s his dad and lawyer being soft about this whole situation and the NCAA for being the NCAA. Toxic Culture at Georgia has nothing to do with this.
I don’t see the point of any UGA fans getting upset about this. None of us know what happened or didn’t as it relates to the program and Cade. The ncaa is horrible when it comes to these decisions. Lawyers are lawyers. Players want to play. The ncaa denying most non QB’s is the problem. Their double standard caused this and Cade is going to fight to play. Just let it play out.
I tend to agree; none of us know the true story. There may have been several reasons why the kid transferred. Perhaps at first he didn’t want to slander the program so didn’t mention the culture? That’s just an example – we just don’t know.
Hopefully payment of the lawyer is based on a successful waiver granted. This lawyer does not deserve to get paid.
Finally some wisdom comes forth!
Thinking this whole mess could contribute to a REAL toxic environment between the hedges on 10/10/2020…
So … he was booed by the Tennessee fans last year and even though it was covered by the press it was not considered “toxic”? Goodbye Vol
None of this would have been an issue if the “intern who shall not be named” had been fired from Tennessee in a more timely manner. Cade Mays wanted to play for a relevant program. He wanted to be a Vol as well. He knew he couldn’t do both as long as the brick laying clown was HC at UT. He never would have went to UGA at all if he thought Tennessee would have been serious about fixing the program. And he wouldn’t have known that until UT finally booted the idiot AD and brought back Fuller.
I dont usually like to call names but have to agree 100%
Yep, but Mays also knew Haslem really had the most say in who the AD hired at TN. Now that he’s seen UT is no longer influenced by B.Haslem and a better coach was hired, better AD, even Chancellor, all seems to be fixed at UT. No former UT coach since Fulmer is still a head coach, cept Kiffin(but he was only here one year). Let that sink in. Baaaad coaches, so UT divorced themselves of Bill and Mays has been keeping track and “than”, came back.
Ok. Now I’m glad the kid is gone and he has to sit out a year. Screw’em.
Exactly what Mays means by toxic right here…
A comment section on a sports website has nothing to do with the environment on a college campus. This is really, really, really stupid. Even for you.
Saying screw em to an athlete because he transferred is toxic and if you can’t identify that you may need to see someone
You’re moving the goalpost. A fan making any negative comment doesn’t reflect on the environment of the university. So your statement “Exactly what Mays means by toxic right here” is beyond idiotic. It would be like me saying Auburn has a toxic atmosphere because a fan on a website said______. It’s stupid
Well when our stars transfer we don’t say get lost and stuff.
So you speak for all Auburn fans now? Every fan base has nutty fans. Auburn isn’t immune.
If it was so toxic, then why’d you stay there for two years before transferring to the school whose fans wildly booed you and castigated you on social media, wishing you would be injured & such? (Yes, the extreme nutcase minority).
It’s understandable that you’re frustrated over the NCAA’s total acid trip decision process, but throwing a high-integrity school under the bus is a pretty stupid way to do it.
He’s probably just taking a shot at Georgia, and over exaggerating the toxicity.
“If it was so toxic, then why’d you stay there for two years before transferring to the school whose fans wildly booed you and castigated you on social media, wishing you would be injured & such?”
Maybe it was that bad at Georgia. To transfer to a team that didn’t like you, maybe that’s just how bad it was at Georgia. But obviously I can’t prove that.
That doesn’t make sense, though. If it was “that bad at Georgia” then there would be (much) more evidence of it. This reeks of an attorney just spinning a narrative, devoid of truth, for the sake of obtaining a judgement that benefits his client.
He stayed because he wanted to be sure UT did things differently than before. Listening to Bill Haslem cost TN over a decade of success. Never listen to a booster on who to hire as yoru head coach. No one talks about how bad the coaches were. Only Kiffin is still a head coach and he was for only 1 years. Once he saw the new system was working and totally different at UT, he wanted to leave. But also, who wants to beg for playing time if your daddy is suing the school? LOL
I dont think any kid should be allowed to transfer in division without sitting for a year unless they have a valid family medical situation.
Dear NCAA,
Let me solve this issue for you. Everyone sits out a year for any in conference transfer. No exceptions. Everyone does not sit out a year for a non conference transfer. No exceptions. Done. Everyone knows ahead of time the consequences of their decision and no one has to wait on a ruling.
So is that why the USC QB was allowed to eligible at UGA? I will admit that I do not know his circumstances, but QB out of UGA, so they allow one back in? Forget the conference and division issues….the NCAA is setting itself up for the Power 5 to say GOODBYE! Explain and have reasons or just get out of the way….seems only QBs are approved…. see no evidence of otherwise, not just a one time, but consistent for non QBs. The kids want to play! Make them want to be part of your mission with the environment you create. If I worked for a company and did not like certain things or my boss left and the environment changed, I might leave too. Think about that one…. I know….they are young, but they still are allowed to serve in the armed forces and protect you for you opinions on this site….and they can vote. Where is the line? The NCAA is flushing themselves faster than they realize. Watch what happens in the next 2 years….it will be interesting.
Dounle0sevn, don’t you realize that logic and simplicity are not allowed in the administration of the NCAA?
I’m sure there was some toxicity in the environment.
It also was 100% Mr. Mays fault. Sue someone for no reason at all, besides your own stupidity and the relationship is bound to take a dip.
This whole mess is all because of simple greed by Mr. Mays. He wanted some free money and he showed his son no concern at all.
I don’t get it. Hasn’t it always been that a player sits out a YEAR when transferring to another FBS Program, unless a player has graduated. And the SEC Rule is you must sit out a year, if transferring to a rival division school from my understanding.
Regardless, he should sit out a year. Playing football with you younger brother on the same team again, is NOT a legitimate reason to transfer. And I guess the “toxic” environment in Athens is that his little brother wasn’t good enough to get a scholarship at UGA. What a loser! And don’t get me started on Fields!!!
Today’s crop of young people are quite accustomed to getting things their way…so Mom n Dad will continue paying the attorney. He definitely should have to sit for a year…unless he yells racism and it’d be immediately granted…sorry…he’s white…can’t do that.
This lawyer is trying to stir something up, create an impression that somehow UGA was “toxic”?! BS. His Dad’s pinky would disagree, but he was a warrior for us, played different positions well. I hope he gets the waiver, now on appeal. He should be NFL bound next year I suspect.
The Mays family found themselves an ambulance chasing tv lawyer to concoct lies and deceit about the Georgia program. Pure desperation and contempt for a university that gave him two years of playing championship ball and a free education.
Kid is wanting to play by trying to trash his old team and claim he left because of a “toxic environment”. But then he completely invalidates that by trying to join the team with the MOST toxic environment in all of collegiate sports, Tennessee. 56 known and proven rapists on Butch Jones’ teams and Mr. Potatohead did not get rid of a single one when he took over the program. White boards assaulted at almost each and every game and the inbreeding going on there is a sin against god. Almost as much of a sin as making me stick up for Georgia, which I am forced to do here. Why do we still allow this circus sideshow program to stain and tarnish The SEC? We already have a real school from the state of Tennessee in the league, we don’t need these hillfolk.
There is just something so natural with the words, “Lawyer”and “Toxic” in the same sentence.
I believe NCAA has and always will play the favoritisms of big time programs… I believe Ga had a TE from up north who’s grandfather was ill,,, something of that nature,, relatives ill and denied… Fields and transfer QB from Ohio State cases approved immediately,,, Vols waited till just before season started fir ruling on Solomon DT from Michigan… Flawed and scandalous,,, such as so many of America once great institutions and ways of life!!!