Actually: Turner, Witty Not Cleared Yet Comment Count

Brian

Er. Rich Rodriguez called into WTKA this morning and dropped one important bit of news: Justin Turner and Adrian Witty are not cleared yet. Which… uh… directly contradicts multiple statements from Rodriguez himself—or at least directly contradicts how those statements were reported—from Big Ten Media Days.

A transcription of the answer to the question "All the freshmen are ready to go, right?"

Not exactly. We've still got a couple that are working through clearinghouse issues. This recently came up. Just about all of them were here for the summer with the exception of a couple guys, and those two are still not resolved. We're still waiting on Justin Turner to get some information in. We're hoping that will be before Sunday. [Garbled] within a week. The other one is Adrian Witty, who's got a test score we're still waiting on. So he's kind of in limbo right now. … Hopefully either one or both of them will get resolved very quickly.

If it happens [later in camp] we'll bring them in a week later.

So it sounds like Turner's thing is just paperwork. Witty, on the other hand, is still waiting for a qualifying score and might not make it in.

Comments

gremlin

August 6th, 2009 at 11:41 AM ^

RR SAID AT BT MEDIA DAY, "I THINK EVERYONE IS CLEARED." Both the freep, and you Brian reported this inaccurately. I just assumed you heard otherwise and then posted it.

Ifyou go back to the day you posted it you'll see I tried pointing this out. I'm sure the freep just misled you, as it does all of us.

ChrisR013

August 6th, 2009 at 11:46 AM ^

Does anyone actually know the procedures when it comes to being accepted and cleared by the Clearinghouse? I ask because it seems to be a mystery to most everyone on the boards...

JC3

August 6th, 2009 at 12:22 PM ^

You have to have a 2.0 GPA and I think a 17 on your ACT to qualify. Basically you send in your junior transcript, your final senior year transcript, and your ACT score in. I don't know if there are different requirements for other states (like Ohio's test.. or whatever).

Other Chris

August 6th, 2009 at 12:27 PM ^

It's a sliding scale. The lower your GPA, the higher your test scores must be. So, when you just look at the minimums for both, it is misleading.

Plus, there are core courses you have to have taken and passed, as well as rules for homeschooling. There are a number of things that must be covered, and failing to adequately address any of them will lead to failure to clear.

http://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/hs/d1_standards.pdf

Illini Boy

August 6th, 2009 at 12:29 PM ^

There's actually a sliding scale, where the higher your GPA, the lower your ACT has to be. But there are multiple "clearinghouses", so to speak. There's the GPA/ACT restriction which you mentioned, but you also have to have your diploma. My guess is that Turner isn't officially a graduate until the test is passed. Also, individual schools can set higher (though not lower) bars. Most of the Big 10 schools (usually by dictate outside of the athletics departments) have higher standards than the baselines set by the NCAA.

aenima0311

August 6th, 2009 at 12:03 PM ^

I would think on Turner they're just waiting for his test to officially come back, even though they know or are sure he passed it. Nahmean?

Kinda like we sometimes know a player is announcing for Michigan, but it isn't official until the actual announcement.

Erik_in_Dayton

August 6th, 2009 at 12:22 PM ^

This is just a guess, but I'll be Turner knows he passed his test and now just needs to get an official copy sent by the Ohio school system (or whomever) to the clearinghouse. Given that the results only officially came out a few days ago, this strikes me as likely. Again, though, I'm only speculating.

Other Chris

August 6th, 2009 at 1:35 PM ^

But I don't think anything matters until the NCAA rules. So even if he had a "heads up" which I find somewhat hard to believe anyway, if the Clearinghouse doesn't like what they are seeing, they can flag it for investigation and leave you hanging regardless.

So you might as well show up and practice and hope for the best.

aawolve

August 6th, 2009 at 12:14 PM ^

knew it wasn't confirmed. Why shouldn't gremlin be critical of it being reported as fact by this site, unless this is some sort of recurring theme with him? This site and Brian are great, but he dropped the ball on this one. Nobody's perfect.

markusr2007

August 6th, 2009 at 12:52 PM ^

qualify and he was part of the recruiting "package deal" with Denard Robinson, I wonder how Denard will respond to such a development.

I hope JT and Adrian both qualify.

wiscwood

August 6th, 2009 at 5:53 PM ^

What I'm hearing is Witty is a really good player. Before his injury teams were scouting Witty hard. He was on that 4 x 100 team in Florida. I know people are sweet on D. Robinson, I think he will be a receiver if QB does not work. Forcier is that good.

This year D. Robinson will back up Forcier. When Gardener gets to Michigan it will get very interesting.

chitownblue2

August 6th, 2009 at 5:09 PM ^

Schools can admit any student that they want - regardless of whether they pass through the clearinghouse or not. The Clearinghouse only determines who can play sports.

Michigan has a policy (strangely bent for Marques Slocum) of not accepting non-qualifiers. Many schools will, and will hope that any remedial courses or other coursework will get them eligible for the following year. That's why Witherspoon got to go to Rutgers.