UNC WR Walker rejected appeal, disqualified for ’23

• Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior WriterSep 7, 2023, 04:10 PM ET

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  • ACC reporter.
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
  • Graduate of the University of Florida.North Carolina

coach Mack Brown ripped the NCAA on Thursday after getting word that receiver Tez Walker will be disqualified to play this season.Saying the NCAA

has actually failed Walker and his household, Brown said, “It makes no sense and it never will.”

Walker and North Carolina have actually invested months appealing the NCAA’s preliminary decision to decline his waiver to play in 2023 as a two-time transfer on several grounds: mental health difficulties he has actually experienced, causing his decision to transfer closer to home; and that he never ever dipped into his first school, NC Central, due to the fact that its season was canceled as an outcome of the pandemic.His two previous schools, NC Central and Kent State, filed waivers in support of Walker playing this year.His last effort at getting eligibility went before a committee of NCAA Department I agents Thursday.A declaration from UNC HC Mack Brown on Tez Walker pic.twitter.com/ngm5jKlL20!.?.!— Carolina Football(

@UNCFootball )September 7, 2023 “We’re absolutely squashed to find out that Tez Walker’s eligibility has actually been rejected for this season and he will not have the ability to play,”Brown stated.”I do not understand that I have actually ever been more disappointed in a person, a group of individuals, or an organization than I am with the NCAA today. It’s clear that the NCAA has to do with process and it could not care less about the young people it’s supposed to be supporting. Plain and basic, the NCAA has actually stopped working Tez and his household and I’ve lost all faith in its ability to lead and govern our sport. “North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham stated the NCAA “on eight different occasions … had the opportunity to demonstrate it can make noise and sensible decisions in the best interest of student-athletes based on private situations. Instead, the NCAA made a maddening, frustrating and wrong choice– for Tez, for college football and for college sports.”On Jan. 11, the NCAA announced it would be cracking down on permitting waivers for two-time transfers, two days after Walker started classes at North Carolina. The standards, which were unanimously approved by the Division I Council, state that” multiple-time transfers who can not show and sufficiently record a personal requirement for medical or safety factors to depart the previous school are not eligible to contend immediately following their second undergraduate transfer. “Stephen LaPorta, the chair of the NCAA committee on legislative relief, said Thursday in a declaration that the NCAA does not discuss particular cases, however he went on to say”the NCAA takes student-athlete psychological health and wellness seriously.” He likewise stated in the declaration that resources and support group are still readily available to two-time transfers who do not get a waiver to compete” as they acclimate to their brand-new schools prior to completing the next year.”

Walker has stated he has actually received psychological health therapy given that he came to North Carolina. Cunningham said North Carolina and Kent State” have supplied overwhelming proof detailing his psychological health requirements”and mentioned that the transfer waiver

requirements were restricted after Walker transferred to North Carolina.Walker matured in Charlotte, North Carolina, and worked as the primary caretaker for his grandma when he was in high school.”Simply picture what it resembles for Tez to be so fired up to come house and have a possibility to meet his youth imagine betting North Carolina in front of all of his friends and family, only to have it taken away in spite of doing nothing incorrect,”Brown said in his statement.”I can’t start to comprehend how this has actually happened. The choice makers at the NCAA and on the committee ought to be ashamed of themselves for doing this to a young man.””As has actually been clearly documented, Tez ought to be eligible for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the mental health problems he’s faced throughout his time in college. And with this choice, the NCAA has positioned an unneeded burden on him. He’s had a rough go of it and this will surely just make it even worse.” How attempt they ever discuss mental health and student-athlete well-being again. We’ve got complete rosters upgraded through the transfer portal, players playing in their 8th year of college, players playing at their 4th school, and the list goes on. Yet, Tez Walker, who has only played football at one school, isn’t eligible. It makes no sense and it never ever will.Brown closed his declaration with this:”Pity on you, NCAA. PITY ON YOU!”