Iowa State men’s basketball: Jameel McKay loses waiver request to play earlier
By Brian Spaen
Jameel McKay will be eligible to play for the Iowa State men’s basketball team as scheduled despite trying to fight to play earlier.
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According to Chris Williams of Cyclone Fanatic, a source of his says that McKay wasn’t granted a waiver that would have allowed him to play earlier than the game against Drake in Wells Fargo Arena on December 20th.
According to a source, Jameel McKay was not granted a waiver by the NCAA. He will be eligible for the #Cyclones on Dec. 20.
— Chris Williams (@ChrisMWilliams) July 21, 2014
Williams’ source could have been McKay’s Twitter account, who tweeted this around 15 minutes prior to his report.
Dec 20 .........
— Jameel Mckay (@ShowTime_McKay) July 21, 2014
McKay was declared ineligible to play for the first semester at Iowa State. For what exact reason? Because the NCAA enforces a player to sit out for a year (two semesters). Despite McKay not playing for Marquette at all, he enrolled at the school and had to be there for the full fall semester in 2013.
In turn, the NCAA would automatically make him ineligible for both semesters of the 2014 calendar year. Since there was no real reason for McKay to transfer (that we know publicly) other than wanting to be with a different team, the waiver was not granted.
The ruling by the NCAA wasn’t expected by many to be overturned. Even McKay acknowledged that in an article with the Des Moines Register a month ago.
"“It’s actually deeper than everyone thinks,” he said. “It’s no basketball issue. Right now, my mind is that I won’t play until Dec. 20. I don’t want to get my hopes up.”"