Big 12 roundup: Former Texas Tech quarterback Baker Mayfield will appeal in-conference transfer rule
By Brian Spaen
Texas Tech had the luxury of two talented quarterbacks running their offense last season, but when push came to shove, Baker Mayfield left the team after the school wouldn’t give him a scholarship. Now, he’s going to fight the in-conference transfer rule that forces him to sit out for a year.
More from Big 12 News
- Big 12 basketball: Annual challenge with SEC moves to January
- Big 12 basketball: Kansas Jayhawks survive scare at TCU
- Big 12 college basketball schedule for January 26-February 1
- College basketball schedule: Big 12 game times, TV listings, live stream for January 19-25
- College basketball schedule: Big 12 game times, TV listings, live stream for January 12-18
Mayfield was a walk-on for the Red Raiders and became the first walk-on freshman at the quarterback position to start at a BCS school. However, due to injury and the emergence of Davis Webb as the backup, Texas Tech didn’t guarantee a scholarship to Mayfield. Really.
So, Mayfield bolted to Oklahoma. But thanks to the in-conference rule by the NCAA, Mayfield will still have to sit for a year even as a walk-on from the previous school. Texas Tech blocked the transfer and the scholarship from Oklahoma before July 1st that would have made Mayfield eligible to play this season with the Sooners.
Here are the statements from both head coaches (via ESPN). TTU’s Kliff Kingsbury cites team policy with NCAA rules while OU’s Bob Stoops simply calls out how bogus it is.
"“To have a walk-on kid win Big 12 freshman of the year and then he leaves and there is a negative spin to it, it is tough,” Kingsbury said. “I wish him well and I’m still proud of what we did there and I’ll be proud watching him moving forward in every game except for one.”“I think it’s one thing if you’ve invested a scholarship in an individual and he decides to leave, heck, they even half the time allow them to play immediately,” Stoops said. “But a guy, that you haven’t invested a scholarship in, I don’t know why that would even be something.[“]"
This isn’t hard to figure out. Rules are in place for a reason, but this isn’t one you just stick to the book with. The only thing that’s costing Texas Tech in this situation is future tuition from Mayfield. It was already stupid not to put somebody like Mayfield on scholarship to begin with, and now it’s a double fail to pull out the NCAA rule card.
Basically, the NCAA should recognize this block is being done for a reason (not just rules) and that Texas Tech has way too much power over a quarterback they wouldn’t even give a scholarship to.
Other Big 12 news
— Here’s a Q&A session with West Virginia punter Nick O’Toole and his mustache. Because there’s no actual football to talk about because he’s a punter, ESPN basically just talks about the ‘stache and how he dresses during road games. That’s not a bad thing.
— TCU talks more about the new philosophy on offense. There could be a lot of rotation at quarterback thanks to multiple bye weeks in the first part of the season, and the offense will try to be both simple and incredibly fast.
— The 2014-15 Big 12 women’s basketball schedule was released. Go look at it.*
*I made that as boring as possible because we’ll take a look at the Iowa State women’s basketball schedule later today, and I’d rather have you read that.