In Tez Walker reversal, NCAA tries to admit it screwed up without sounding stupid
The NCAA finally arrived at the right decision regarding Tez Walker — more than a month late, but still — and of course it couldn’t bear admitting any responsibility of its own for what turned into an ongoing travesty of justice.
In announcing its reversal of its decision to deny Walker a waiver to play immediately at North Carolina this season, the NCAA blamed North Carolina – in a statement signed, unusually, by president Charlie Baker – for not submitting the appropriate information during a months-long appeals process and that “this entire unfortunate episode could have been avoided” if UNC’s “behavior” and “public relations campaign” hadn’t been “inappropriate.”
North Carolina may have gone over the top at times but maybe that’s what it takes to move the NCAA needle in 2023. If UNC hadn’t advocated for Walker, does anyone really believe he’d suddenly be eligible Saturday?
The NCAA’s entire statement is from the page in the parenting manual where you learn how to scold a child for doing something that’s actually the parent’s fault. Or maybe the NCAA is actually the petulant child, finally obeying but not without kicking and screaming.
So you can believe the NCAA that North Carolina botched this whole thing from the beginning, even through a wave of hearings when it threw everything but Walker’s socks at the NCAA. Or you can believe the NCAA went scrambling for a loophole to get out of this self-inflicted mess after granting waivers to other players in similar positions (whoops!) while under the threat of an imminent lawsuit (uh oh!) with support from North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein (uhhh!) … and tried to fling blame at everyone but itself in the process.
The reality is even if UNC really fumbled this the way the NCAA alleges it did (without providing any evidence, of course), the NCAA had plenty of chances to do what was clearly the right thing long before. This was an open-and-shut case on the merits. Any “new information” was only ever going to incrementally bolster Walker’s already strong case.
The NCAA is basically trying to say it screwed up without sounding stupid. That’s tough to do.
Even in a more restrictive transfer environment, Walker was the textbook example of why waivers exist at all, having lost an entire season to COVID and with the support of both of his previous schools. It was an open-and-shut case from the start.
The point was always to sacrifice Walker, to deny his waiver to show that the NCAA was heeding its members’ wishes to cut down on multiple transfers, a high-profile offering to make a bunch of rich men and women – boneheaded university presidents, greedy athletic directors, selfish coaches – feel better about themselves regardless of the obvious issues inherent in Walker’s case. It was a desperate attempt to reassert the NCAA’s iron-fisted control over athletes and their freedoms after a series of losses in court, Supreme and public opinion both.
The NCAA may not have liked it, but North Carolina was correct to blast the NCAA for not taking Walker’s own description of his mental health into account, as the amateur psychologists on the most recent appeals panel – a bunch of athletic-department staffers who should have known better than to wade into these dangerous waters – passed their own judgment on his state of mind.
That gambit backfired, and the NCAA lashed out at the easiest target, blaming UNC for having the temerity to push back. It hasn’t stopped, either.
“We still believe Tez met all standards for the waiver in early August,” North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. “It is not clear why the NCAA delayed making the correct decision then, but we are pleased to get to the appropriate resolution now. “
The right outcome has indeed finally arrived, and even if Walker missed North Carolina’s first four games, the Tar Heels remain undefeated with everything still ahead of them, and he gets Saturday’s game against Syracuse as a warm-up for the potentially pivotal game against Miami on Oct. 14.
Maybe he can contribute the way North Carolina hoped he would in August, when the school and team believed he was going to be able to play. Maybe it’s too late for that this season. In the end, it doesn’t matter. The truth is, regardless of whether he can make an impact at this point or not, it was worth fighting the good fight.
The NCAA screwed this up and lost, no matter how many fingers it wants to point now. It tried to make an example of Walker, and only made an example of itself.
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This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 3:18 PM with the headline "In Tez Walker reversal, NCAA tries to admit it screwed up without sounding stupid."
