Myles Sims' family upset with Michigan over transfer waiver denial

Just implement the Harbaugh “mulligan rule” already...

This is ridiculous, the NCAA just needs to get their heads out of their ass and implement the one Mulligan rule Harbaugh suggested. If the current system requires teams to lie on the behalf of players or get bad mouthed in the press it is a broken system. Also it is deflecting blame from the true culprits which is the NCAA for having no consistency in how they apply the current rule, that is not a UM or Harbaugh problem.

The root of the dispute is whether Myles left for playing time, or some other reason.  The Sims' are upset that Michigan Compliance said 'playing time' to the NCAA.  Here is the relevant quote from the Sims': "The disappointment is in knowing that they included just a few words outside of what we said to mislead the NCAA in their decision-making”. 

Here is what Michigan delivered: "...the statement that Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel submitted to the NCAA as part of the case documentation – Tech’s compliance department showed Myles a copy of it, according to the parents – stated that he had instead left Michigan for a fresh start and for playing time."

So, the dispute is about why M Compliance said that.  If Sims (himself, or his parents) at any point said he wanted to play, then Michigan is good in explicitly saying such.  If they did not, then Michigan is dead wrong in providing that particular statement.

I'm 99.8% sure that Myles said he wanted to go somewhere where he could play.  I'm also 99.8% sure he said this to coaches when his parents (and/or a lawyer) weren't around.  Herein lies the gray area for me - while meeting with the parents to 'officially' request a transfer, did playing time come up as a topic?  If not, it shouldn't have been mentioned by Compliance.  If so, was it 'look, we're not looking for PT', or was it 'we want some'?  Context is everything here.

In any case, the optics aren't good for Michigan.  Right or wrong, always having to defend yourself against what seems 'right' for a player creates a bad perception.  And perception is reality...

After what seems as a number of high profile granted immediate eligibility waivers, more and more are being denied.  This will spread the hue and cry across the college football landscape and deflect from U of M and Harbaugh and onto the NCAA.  It will suppress the number of transfer seekers and the pendulum will swing in the other direction.  Perhaps, it will result in the adoption of the "Harbaugh rule".  I don't believe that it is indicative of a U of M issue.

Don't fault Michigan's response. Hard for us to know what happened. Sims might have told coach he'd get more playing time, in front of the team. Players do talk about this, and if that's how it went down, 100 guys would know Michigan played along if their NCAA response omitted that.

We sometimes forget that the most important role of athletics at Michigan is to develop these kids into great people. That means telling the truth, even when it's not strategically convenient. 

Be pleased with the staff here; you wouldn't see coaches take the high road at OSU or state.

I guess I don't get why Michigan's response even matters? If a player has to prove they have extenuating and extraordinary circumstances, why does Michigan's opinion on the transfer even matter? It seems like the answer may be "it doesn't", which means it's just getting ridiculous that Harbaugh/Michigan keep getting nailed for this. Or if it does matter, then that's on the NCAA for having a dumb af process. 

The whole waiver thing is so arbitrary, and they quite clearly favor big name QBs over pretty much anyone. So I don't see how people can be getting mad at Harbaugh for such a dumb process.

These articles are getting old.

However, its the NCAA's fault for putting precedent out on giving out immediate eligibility to cases with zero merit.  So every transfer thinks they deserve it.

If if he didn't want people think he was transferring for playing time, he should have given a more compelling explanation than "personal reasons."

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I was under the impression that the standard rule was that you had to sit out a year. You could petition the NCAA to get an exception based on extenuating circumstances, those which typically are due to family problems (need to relocate closer to home b/c of a sick parent etc...) or some grievence committed by the school (Ole Miss).  

If your reason is "I want to play and they say I'm not the next guy up" that doesn't constitute one of the above two circumstances. 

I don't know all the things, but I thought that being granted access to play immediately was not the general, standard outcome. 

Happy to be explained away from this perspective though.

I don't see how you can fault Michigan here if the family won't provide any details to the NCAA beyond "personal reasons."

You're inviting skepticism with such ambiguity.

...and here we go again!

I didn't see any stat related to the current average acceptance rate by the NCAA for immediate eligibility.  An article like this should have that info in it, so people can judge the righteousness of the Sims' indignation.  From my perspective, this is a First World Problem.

Good lord the NCAA is the dumbest organization in the world.  If what was said here is true, Michigan giving a standard response of "he wants a fresh start and playing time" is demonstrably different than "he's leaving for personal reasons", and that somehow blocking a guy, is a terrible reason to deny a waiver.  Personally I think all guys should be able to leave for whatever reason they want and the NCAA shouldn't give a shit, but if you are putting hoops to jump through this is a dumb distinction to make.

Of note, the other transfer from Florida (Antonneous Clayton) was also denied a waiver.  I don't see anyone complaining about how UF may have hurt his transfer chances, but then again I'm sure AJC just wants clicks and maybe Clayton's family thought better than to go public with their issues.

Who has more to lose by misleading? U of M or Sims' camp? The answer is obvious and sorta tells you that I'd think Michigan is telling the truth based on the facts they had on hand.

I wonder what would be the NCAA's response to Michigan if Michigan's statement had been, "We don't recall what Sims said was the reason he left." Does the NCAA require each school to meticulously document what a player said in an exit interview? Probably they do. But if not, perhaps this would be a better approach from now on.

There is a difference between lying and not being completely honest. Michigan seems to be going with complete honesty where it seems to be unnecessary and there isn't anything in it for them to do so. The answer to the question why did X transfer should be we don't know and we don't care.

I feel like the Fields case really messed everything up.  After that everyone thinks they can make up any excuse and get a waiver too.  OSU messing things up again for everyone else.

When you state "personal" reasons and nothing more, you open yourself up for folks interpreting it however they want. I hope him and every player gets to transfer and play right away without an explanation. 

Get in line!

Just read that GT had 3 transfers -- all denied. Blaming UM for one is BS, when 2 others also denied.

So the NCAA is rejecting waiver after waiver and some reason Luke Fickell made it about Harbaugh. And now Myles Sims' family is trying to piggy back on that. 

not this shit again