The Kentucky Wildcats continue to wait for the NCAA to rule on two key athletes for the upcoming seasons of college football and hoops.
Auburn transfer quarterback Joey Gatewood is waiting to know if the NCAA will grant him immediate eligibility for the soccer team, as will Wake Forest transfer center Olivier Sarr for basketball cats.
Well, they both just got good news in the form of USC transfer quarterback JT Daniels, who was granted instant eligibility for next season for Georgia.
Thank you to the NCAA for granting me immediate eligibility and allowing me to play soccer this fall. I won’t comment on the exemption or transfer, but I look forward to a great 2020 season with my teammates.
– JT Daniels (@ jtdaniels06) July 13, 2020
This is another good sign that the NCAA is being much more forgiving with transfers this year in soccer and basketball.
Daniels, who will be a red-shirt sophomore this fall, announced his transfer from USC on April 17 and then became engaged to Georgia on May 28. That means it took around a month and a half before being considered eligible, which has been the time frame for other transfers this summer.
Former Kentucky shooting guard Johnny Juzang was transferred to UCLA over the summer, and it took the NCAA about two months to declare that he was eligible for next season.
Former Ohio state guard DJ Carton was transferred to Marquette, and he also learned that he would be eligible next season after a two-month wait. So based on all of these cases, it could be any day that we know if Sarr and / or Gatewood will be eligible next season.
Daniels is also a California native and played soccer in high school in Mater Dei. So instead of moving closer to home, the easiest way to get instant NCAA eligibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re moving to the opposite end of the country, but you still have immediate eligibility.
That’s a very good sign for players like Gatewood and Sarr, neither of whom are moving closer to home moving to the UK, nor do they have significant difficulties that led them to drop out of their old school.
