When California postponed its fall football season in high school, Miller Moss took the news like so many others in the country’s most populous state: sad, frustrated, and even angry. Moss, who was already one of the highest-ranked field marshals in the country in the 2021 recruiting class, missed the chance of a big hurrah in high school. There would be no exclamation mark in his star career at Mater Dei, the Santa Ana-based power plant.
But in the end, I probably wouldn’t lose a season after all.
Moss, a USC commitment to sign in January in the middle of the year, expects to play a winter or spring season next year just a few weeks after arriving on the Los Angeles campus. And he’s not the only one. Many mid-year enrollees who are enrolled in the Pac-12 and Big Ten systems expect to be eligible to participate in the 2020 postponed seasons, many of whom have learned the opportunity from the coaches who recruit them.
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“We don’t have a definitive answer, but all I heard is that we might be eligible. The smart thing is that this might not count as a year of eligibility,” Moss said in an interview with SI this week. “It’s very exciting for me to hear it. Nothing like this has happened before. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. People communicate about wasting those game reps (in high school) as a senior, but you can upload representative games to a higher level.”
In an article published last week on an online page covering the state of Ohio, Buckeyes assumes Jack Sawyer’s offensive commitment and says he chose not to participate in his best school season this fall due to the option to bet on a winter or spring school football season. . He told elevenwarriors.com that OSU coach Ryan Day is pushing for NCAA officials to grant eligibility to mid-year enrollees. “We all wait and pray that they will let us play,” he said.
The NCAA can simply run hopes. The rumour around this factor has reached one of the highest rule-making committees in the NCAA Division I. Control Committee. He personally believes that those who arrive in the middle of the year will not be eligible to play a winter or spring season, but he is not sure which course the committee will choose.
There is strong opposition, that is, from schools that are still making plans to play an autumn season, against an unprecedented decision. This creates an imbalance between the 10 FBS conferences: the six are still on their way to an fall season and 4 o’clock plan to play a season that begins in January-March. Is it fair that a mid-year freshman organization has an additional season? Such a thing can be put on hold in hiring as an incentive to influence the outlook. This can be a major disadvantage for those who play in the fall.
“In fact, there have been discussions about eligibility,” says Todd Berry, executive director of the Football Coaches Association and a member of the oversight committee. “Do you have a year off? They do it this year of education. That’s a delicate proposition.”
At the heart of the factor is the NCAA’s resolution last week to grant fall sports athletes one more year of eligibility, whether or not they play in the 2020-2021 educational year. A mid-year registrant is technically an autumn sports athlete, isn’t he? “The question is, will the interpretation apply to mid-year registrants?” Lyons says. “There is a recruiting disadvantage for those who play (in the fall). You can’t say, “You play in the spring if you come here. I don’t think that’s the intent of eligibility (of the change). These are the ones that were already registered. “
Normally, mid-year enrollers can participate in Bowl or CFP exercise sessions in December and January, but are not eligible to play. Mid-year registration is an elegant trend in the school football landscape. In January, some systems have more than 10 members of their signature class. The measure gives freshmen five more months to adjust to college life before games begin, giving them the opportunity to exercise with their new equipment in winter and spring.
Now it’simaginable that they can play a game within a month of arriving on campus. There are other disorders with that. While Moss’ best school season is canceled, other states are looking to play ball at the top school this year. If a mid-year enrollee is eligible for a spring season, this player may eventually participate in 3 football seasons in a single calendar year (autumn ’20 at high school and spring ’21 and fall ’21 in college). This poses serious health and protection problems, Lyons says.
These mid-year freshmen, and school transfers, face impediments through play in a spring season: time. The general path for a new school player begins with an arrival on campus in early June (or, mid-year, January). That’s at least 3 months before the season starts and no more than 8 months.
David Morris, field quarterback coach and Founder of Mobile-based QB Country, has reveled in reading a football season after just one month of on-campus education. He played in the days leading up to summer education becoming a mainstay of the school game. A new quarterback at Ole Miss in 1998, he spent only a few weeks on campus before betting on the Rebels’ season opener. “They defeated me through the playbook. There are so many facilities,” he says. “The amount of football you’re told in the first fall is mind-blowing. You run internally into the domain towards the “shadow” and you don’t know what “shadow” is. I don’t forget it was much.
Back in California, Moss hopes to play in the spring, but knows in a global COVID-19 that virtually everything is unpredictable and changing, even after NCAA regulations on the issue. This could happen next week or next week, Lyons said. The follow-up will have to be given to the D-I Council, which will then meet on 16 September.
Meanwhile, Moss believes that mid-year enrollers will have a greater chance of immediate eligibility if all meetings take place in the spring. At the moment, that’s happening. Keywords: for now.
“It’s such a fluid period,” he says.