Brown Bear

September 11th, 2015 at 6:34 AM ^

Best of luck to him but he probably should have listened to Harbaugh's advice, use his scholarship and come back for his degree. One year at Tuskegee isn't going to get an undersized athlete to the nfl.



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Rasmus

September 11th, 2015 at 8:00 AM ^

Reading between the lines (including some things that were said when he left Michigan), combined with the fact that a simple equation like NCAA eligibility requirements is not really something Harbaugh could be wrong about, the explanation is probably simple:

Norfleet could have played football, but if he had done so, he would not have been able to graduate from Michigan at the end of the year. [Most likely due to schedule conflicts.] Harbaugh wanted him to not play and thus graduate, while he wanted to play and thus not graduate (i.e., finish his degree later -- that's probably where the "disagreement" comes in -- whether, realistically, that would ever happen).

I don't have a problem with Harbaugh drawing the line there.

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Rasmus

September 11th, 2015 at 8:45 AM ^

For DI to DIII (i.e., Tuskegee) transfers, the only rule is that you have to have been eligible to play at your DI school.

For DI to DII transfers, you also have to have two years of eligibility remaining. So DII was out for Norfleet, since he had only one year left.

See pp. 20-21: http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/TGONLINE2013.pdf

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Muttley

September 11th, 2015 at 10:40 AM ^

Last year they lost 20-17 to West Georgia in the first round of the DII playoffs.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_champs_records/2015/d2/D2.pdf

A bit of history via Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_University#Football

The requirement for two years of remaining eligibility (grayed out below) only applies to DI FBS to D1 FCS transfers

 

From the same pp. 20: http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/TGONLINE2013.pdf

Exceptions for Divisions I and II if you are in a four-year school

If this is your first transfer…

If you have never transferred before from a four-year school, you might be able to use the one-time transfer exception to play right away at a Division I or II school.
To use this exception, you must:
  1. Be playing a sport other than baseball in Division I, basketball in Division I, men's ice hockey in Division I or football in Division I. Note: In football you may be eligible to use this exception if:
    a. You transfer from a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) school to a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) school and have at least two seasons of competition remaining; or

    b. You transfer from a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) school that offers athletics scholarships to a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) that does not offer athletics scholarships. Important Note: If you do not qualify for this exception due to any of the conditions in Subsection 1 above, you may be able to use the exception if you were not recruited by your first four-year school AND have never received an athletics scholarship.
  2. Be in good academic standing and making progress toward your degree;
  3. Have been considered academically eligible if you had stayed in your first school; and
  4. Have a written release agreement from your first school saying that it does not object to your receiving an exception to the transfer residence requirement. If the release is denied, you may be entitled to a hearing conducted by an institutional entity or committee outside of the athletics department (e.g., the office of student affairs; office of the dean of students; or a committee composed of the faculty athletics representative, student-athletes and nonathletics faculty/staff members). Further, in Division I, if your request for a written release is not provided within seven business days of the previous institution receiving the request, the release shall be granted by default and the previous institution shall provide a written release to you.

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Rasmus

September 11th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^

So he couldn't transfer to a I-AA program, but DII was okay.

Blame Google abuse for the mistake about Tuskegee being DIII. Should not have searched for "tuskegee DIII" -- which yielded this page first:

http://www.ncaa.com/game/football/d3/2012/10/13/tuskegee-stillman

Interesting how an Internet search reinforces an error when you search for an error like that. If your error happens to match somebody else's error, then pretty soon we're all going to hell in a handbasket...

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Tuebor

September 11th, 2015 at 11:00 AM ^

Sounds like he spent too much time pledging frat and learning his steps instead of keeping on track to graduate.  He could have redshirted this year and finished his degree then either do a grad transfer to another FBS team or earn a 5th year at Michigan.  Transferring to Tuskegee makes no sense.

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