Free Sarr
- Thread starter Canned Heat
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What I don't understand is that Gatewood looks to become eligible by most reports. Don't take me wrong because I want to see Gatewood get to play this year. We all have heard that Auburn gave there blessing for Gatewood to play immediately this year. We also know since it was two SEC schools that Kentucky had to get more paperwork done for his transfer waiver and that didn't get turned in to the NCAA until July 2020.
Sarr had his Waiver paperwork turned in either last of May or first of June and we also heard that Wake Forest gave there blessing for Sarr to play immediately this year. We also heard that if the school of the transferring player gives their blessing for a kid to be immediately eligible, they will grant immediate eligibility like Auburn with Gatewood. What I don't understand is that Wake Forest gave there blessing for Sarr to play immediately so why hasn't the NCAA approved Olivier Sarr's Waiver to play immediately.
Sarr was transferring because of his Head Coach being fired and also how WF handled the firing and gave Sarr at that time only 24 hrs. to make the decision on NBA or College. With all of that plus Wake Forest giving blessing for Sarr to play immediately at UK why hasn't the NCAA made his announcement? It just doesn't sound that hard with everything we know why the NCAA hasn't approved Sarr's Waiver to play this year. Has anyone heard anything on here or has Coach Cal heard anything else on Sarr's Waiver?
Sarr had his Waiver paperwork turned in either last of May or first of June and we also heard that Wake Forest gave there blessing for Sarr to play immediately this year. We also heard that if the school of the transferring player gives their blessing for a kid to be immediately eligible, they will grant immediate eligibility like Auburn with Gatewood. What I don't understand is that Wake Forest gave there blessing for Sarr to play immediately so why hasn't the NCAA approved Olivier Sarr's Waiver to play immediately.
Sarr was transferring because of his Head Coach being fired and also how WF handled the firing and gave Sarr at that time only 24 hrs. to make the decision on NBA or College. With all of that plus Wake Forest giving blessing for Sarr to play immediately at UK why hasn't the NCAA made his announcement? It just doesn't sound that hard with everything we know why the NCAA hasn't approved Sarr's Waiver to play this year. Has anyone heard anything on here or has Coach Cal heard anything else on Sarr's Waiver?
Vitale brought it up again yesterday. Props.
The NCAA loves to make UK sweat!
This is the NCAA that we are waiting on and you know they hate Cal and UK. Some people may not believe that but all you have to do is look back at some of the decisions they have made against UK.
FWIW, I wouldn’t get too worked about this yet. The more complex cases are notoriously unpredictable, so nothing is set in stone at this point.
I also wouldn’t be too concerned about any perceived anti-UK bias. Ultimately it’s not the NCAA who makes the call on Sarr, it’s the following seven people:
- Associate ADs for Compliance from James Madison, Ole Miss and Rutgers
- Associate Commissioners from the ASUN, PAC-12 and SWAC
- Faculty Athletics Representative from UTEP
There is no longer any doubt that the NCAA is deliberately holding up Sarr's case. Tons of transfers which were filed AFTER Sarr's have already been approved. It only takes ONE PERSON to sit on a file.
Calipari needs to file a lawsuit NOW. Get the ball rolling or else Sarr won't play at all this year.
Calipari needs to file a lawsuit NOW. Get the ball rolling or else Sarr won't play at all this year.
If we don't hear something by October, then maybe time to get worried. Otherwise, no need. Looks like most transfers have been approved, so I can't imagine why Saar would not be. Since it looks like NCAAB isn't starting to end of Nov, no reason to rush. Based on what I saw, looks like Saar should get approved by late Sept, based on the timing of the other transfers that have been announced.
College Athletics crack me up. We're supposed to believe that the Associate AD for Ole Miss is going to rule fairly on this? It would be like asking GM if Ford should be eligible for bailout money. I'm sure it's not a huge deal,.. but still, why is Susan from NCAA HQ not just looking at the transcript and saying "yay" or "nay"? We need Ole Miss's AD to decide this?
I'm tracking some 23 other players that are waiting on this as well. With Sarr, a big plus is that a couple of guys like Sherfield (from Wichita - was at Wichita St - is at Nevada), Stockard (from Missouri -was at Kansas St - is at VCU), and Penn-Johnson (from CA - was at Wash U. - is at LSU) were all clearly not given the immediate eligibility due to being close to home, just the opposite, so that bodes well for us I think.
It’s a member organization and they want the membership to make the calls at the end of the day.
In terms of Ole Miss, Julie’s a good lawyer and a nationally recognized expert in athletics compliance. UK will get a fair evaluation from her.
I wish Cal would quit being a silent ***** on the matter. We’ve been getting screwed for years by the NCAA!
I really hope GREATWOOD gets to play against AU as well, but our booger eating Coarch is so skeeted so I hope this doesn’t happen to that fine young man.
Whether or not Emmert can be objective is irrelevant. He has zero involvement with waiver decisions.
I know people like to portray Emmert as some boogeyman orchestrating corrupt dealings, but the reality is that he has pretty limited power in most situations.
The guy has proven himself to be pretty inept at times and yet has managed to stay securely employed and that’s because of what’s probably the primary responsibility of the NCAA President at this point. He’s there to serve as a human shield and limit the amount of criticism directed towards the schools.
He’s not a visionary. He’s not even a sound administrator. But there’s one thing he excels at and that is he’s a magnet for criticism that sometimes should be directed at university presidents instead of the NCAA.
As long as remains easy to hate, his job will likely be safe, but you also don’t have to worry about him interring with UK. That’s not why the schools keep him around.
Incredulous that 11 years later the folks in Indy STILL have an axe to grind against us.
That's all well and good, but to act like the NCAA President can't pull some strings when he needs to is naive. He already has a few connections that can be seen as COI's and both affect Kentucky: His Alma Matter being Washington and the LSU AD is his co-inlaw (is that what it's called?). And sure enough, LSU remains out of trouble, Washington is getting whoever it wants in recruiting, and the Enes decision was shotty at best, vengeful at worst.
Likely, those things aren't related (but not overwhelmingly..). But still, it's not crazy to think a guy like Emmert, who took time out of his busy day to tell Calipari he can't use his 500-win ball, would use his chain of command here. Because as I've said before. I don't think his schools, or schools like Duke and UNC, would have to wait this long. It would be pushed to the top of the pile.
And this isn't just Kentucky fans who find the lack of movement on Sarr peculiar. It's been tweeted by several of the sports media members.
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We should be hearing something on Sarr real soon since Jamal Bieniemy transferred May 21, 2020. Olivier Sarr transferred to Kentucky on May 6th. In the Bieniemy article there was nothing about why he was seeking a Waiver at UTEP when he decided to leave Oklahoma.
Sarr has the firing of his Head Coach Danny Manning and how poorly WF handled the Firing process for Manning. We also heard WF head coach Steve Forbes gave Sarr his blessing for Sarr to play immediately at UK. Plus many of the Sports Media like Bilas, Greenberg, Vitale, and others have agreed that Olivier Sarr should have already received his waiver at UK to play immediately.
So with Bieniemy transferring to UTEP on May 21, 2020 and Sarr on May 6th we should be hearing about Sarr's waiver approval any minute now.
Sarr has the firing of his Head Coach Danny Manning and how poorly WF handled the Firing process for Manning. We also heard WF head coach Steve Forbes gave Sarr his blessing for Sarr to play immediately at UK. Plus many of the Sports Media like Bilas, Greenberg, Vitale, and others have agreed that Olivier Sarr should have already received his waiver at UK to play immediately.
So with Bieniemy transferring to UTEP on May 21, 2020 and Sarr on May 6th we should be hearing about Sarr's waiver approval any minute now.
It’s not naive, it’s an informed opinion based on a clear understanding of NCAA governance. Ultimately, all NCAA decisions are made by the various committees, which consist of representatives from the member schools and conferences.
None of them work for the NCAA and none of them are accountable to Emmert. There’s a reason why Emmert felt he had to convince the Board to bypass the infractions process for Penn State. Emmert wanted them punished severely and he knew that if it went through the normal process, then he would have zero ability to influence that.
There’s also a bit of an issue with your understanding of some of the underlying facts here that seems to be coloring your view of things.
Emmert didn’t intervene regarding UK’s celebration of Cal’a 500th win. That was Dennis Thomas, chair of the Committee of Infractions and at the time, commissioner of the MEAC. That entire debacle had nothing to do with Emmert. Emmert’s done plenty of stupid things but that wasn’t one of them.
In terms of Kanter, go back and read the rules that were in place at that time. The NCAA applied the rules correctly, there were simply some issue with those. But for anyone to suggest it was some vengeful act perpetrated upon UK because Kanter didn’t attend Washington is frankly pretty absurd. By rule, Kanter received money in excess of limits set by the rules and both UK and the Kanter’s did not challenge this fact. Case closed.
They tried to argue that the Kanter’s didn’t want the money and that they held it without spending it, but those are completely irrelevant points based on the rules at that time. What mattered was did they receive excess money in the first place and the answer to that was yes. At the moment the money was transferred, Kanter’s eligibility was compromised and simply holding the money without spending it did not undo the damage according to the rules.
You can criticize the rules or the process that was put into place to guide decision making. Those are certainly fair game. But if you think this was a situation where UK was being specifically targeted, then you’re simply choosing to see whatever it is that you want to believe is true.
Emmert was the president of Washington DURING the Kanter fiasco... yep, 0.00% chance that's a COI in regarding their prized recruit going elsewhere, right? The guy even went on an interview to say that they had concerns about Kanter's eligibility the whole time. Yet he never voiced those concerns during the year they were courting Enes. Weird.
You have legit media members TELLING us that they think Kanter would have been eligible if he stayed at Washington. This isn't just Kentucky fans upset over not getting to utilize Kanter.. this could be Washington and any school: it reeks of foul play.
Maybe not everything is a conspiracy/nefarious that myself and the rest of the fanbase thinks. I get that. But to sit here and say that in ALL of this there's NO chance, not even a bit, that Emmert didn't act on several occasions to stick it to Kentucky? And to think that he could never make a call or pull strings? Who does the Committee of Infractions answer to then? What are you, Emmert's PR worker?
No, not Emmert’s PR man. You replied to one of my posts with an opinion that included some factual inaccuracies which I proceeded to discuss. A bit like a debate, which is sort of how message boards work.
The Committee on Infractions reports to the Board of Directors. The same board of directors that Eli Capiluoto has chaired during his time at UK. Eli Capiluoto has also served as a member of the NCAA Board of Governors during his time at UK. The same Board of Governors that decides whether or not Emmert keeps his job.
Which means that UK has had a powerful voice at the highest levels of NCAA leadership and we’ve been as well positioned as any school in the country in that respect over the past decade.
As far as Emmert not voicing concerns, why on earth would you have expected him to do anything differently than what he did? If UK were recruiting someone about whom they had eligibility concerns, there’s no chance in hell that Capiluoto is going to go around voicing those concerns publicly before hand. Everyone is going to do the smart thing and keep their mouths shut while they work through the process. Only a complete fool would do otherwise.
Lastly, when it comes to the media, that’s not an argument I find to be that persuasive to be perfectly frank. The media, which in this case really means sports writers and analysts, have repeatedly demonstrated that they don’t have a very good understanding of the NCAA and how it works. I simply don’t put much stock in what they think or say on these types of matters because, more often than not, they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.
Oh JFC, this is who we want as the president of the NCAA and a guy we're supposed to trust? Hiding information on his recruit and then, when he becomes president, using that information to make sure the school that got him (regardless of it being Kentucky), wouldn't be able to play him?
THAT'S who you're trying to defend as not having an agenda? This is what I mean when I say COI and that yes, there is a possibility that Emmert isn't exactly acting in accordance at all times.
The reason why I bring up the media isn't to say that Parish, Doyle or Dickie V are right, it's to point out that it isn't just Kentucky fans who have an issue with things like Sarr's eligibility, a meaningless 500-win ball, and Kanters amateurism. You like to paint a picture that shows Kentucky fans as being paranoid and biased.. Seems like we are far from the only ones.
I never thought I'd see the day a UK fan would be defending Mark Emmert. Lordy, 2020 is weird.
If you thought I was defending Emmert, then you didn’t understand my point.
Emmert’s inept. Let’s get that out of the way right up front.
What I was responding to is the fact that a lot of UK fans think he’s pulling strings behind the scenes to help some schools or hurt others. Those fans are significantly over estimating how much power Emmert really has (and likely have never personally dealt with the NCAA on anything).
Emmert is an administrator and figure head who also provides the added bonus of being a nice, juicy target for criticism so that university presidents don’t have to deal with it. But he’s not exerting all of this influence behind the scenes because at the end of the day, he really doesn’t have that much power.
Representatives from the schools and conferences call the shots and they’re not taking orders from Emmert. They don’t answer to him nor to they hold him in high enough respect to give his opinion that much weight. That’s the reality of the situation.
You just reinforced my point nicely by making a couple of wild accusations. If I break down the first part of your reply, there are two things you assert:
- Emmert was in possession of damaging evidence on Kanter that he actively concealed from the NCAA
- Upon becoming NCAA president, he then provided that evidence to the eligibility center
All of the evidence that the NCAA used to evaluate Kanter’s case came from one of two places: directly from the Kanter’s or directly from Fenerbahce.
The problem for Kanter was that Fenerbahce was actively trying to get him declared ineligible and was sending over every single piece of evidence they had directly to the NCAA (e.g., all of the bank statements for every payment they made). The NCAA then worked with the Kanter’s and UK compliance to review everything and see if they wanted to challenge any of the evidence they revived from Fenerbahce.
When it was all said and done, the Kanter’s, the NCAA and UK were in agreement on the amount that was paid and the documentary evidence to support that, and the amount they agreed to exceeded what was allowed by the by-laws. In other words, UK and Kanter effectively pleaded guilty at that point.
If folks want to be mad at anyone it should be the folks from Fenerbahce. That’s who torpedoed his chances, not Emmert. Emmert is a pompous, inept career administrator. He’s not the powerful vindictive force you seem to want to believe he is, and anyone who thinks he meddled in these things is giving him way too much credit.
Everybody knows you're the end all/be all when it come the NCAA and eligibility. What a know it all pain in the ***.
I don’t know that I’d say end all / be all, but certainly in a better position to understand things than sports writers.
And feel free to put me on ignore if my posts are upsetting you this much. There’s no sense for you to read them if you don’t like what I have to say, and ignoring them is a pretty simple solution for that.
