Rakeem Buckles Says He's U Bound; Waiting NCAA Clearance

[WanderingGopher]

No. There is a permission to contact which has existed for a long time. Not a "release" issue.

Prospective SA's are routinely on campus at schools without having been declared eligible. Final OK's could be received this week; it could be in November. I'd guess it'll be sooner than later. Regardless of when that comes, the plan would be to start taking classes at the U for the new semester.

The issue there would be if I'm Buckles and I have any substantial fear that I may not be cleared to play at Minnesota, then I might want to stay at FIU and play out my final year.

I think most likely he'll be here and get cleared.

Buckles played limited minutes with Louisville, but when he played his rebounding was sensational. Heading into his sophomore year he had a good summer and expectations were very high for his career. Bummer about the injuries, but having him this year would be very nice for this season, even if he can average 18-20 minutes per game.

GW, do you know what NCAA issue there could possibly be?

We know FIU is ineligible due to APR, and we know it's Buckles' last year of eligibility. His academics were sufficient to be accepted into the U (presuming reports of his acceptance are accurate). Presuming FIU releases him from his scholarship ... what is the NCAA issue here? Why wouldn't this basically be a rubber stamp like for Malik Smith?

 

[Gopher Warrior]

GW, do you know what NCAA issue there could possibly be?

We know FIU is ineligible due to APR, and we know it's Buckles' last year of eligibility. His academics were sufficient to be accepted into the U (presuming reports of his acceptance are accurate). Presuming FIU releases him from his scholarship ... what is the NCAA issue here? Why wouldn't this basically be a rubber stamp like for Malik Smith?

Could be a number of things... might be just waiting for the 'rubber stamp' due to the postseason ban... which I think is really a recommendation from one NCAA group to another, and then a formal granting of a waiver... so, it's not "automatic" although in practice it seems to have been recently.

Could be academic - some classes may not be automatically included in the progress towards degree calculation.. for example, I think there are limits on PE type classes, but if you have a specific major that requires a minimum number of them... then the limit rises to that minimum.

So, could just be paperwork.. could be some debate about the nature of some classes.. could be some grades.. or something completely different.

My guess (emphasis on guess) is that it relates to progress toward degree / transferability of previous course work to the U.