How optimistic should North Carolina fans be about Tez Walker's eligibility case?

All right, talk me off the ledge. I am less optimistic today than I was yesterday before I read your piece. I don't mean to blame you for that. I thought it was a great read.

So walk me through where you think we are today. Yeah, I agree with you. I think it's going to be a challenge and primarily because, as you pointed out, the NCAA has really looked at this four times. They denied Tez's initial waiver request back in June.

Carolina appealed to the committee of legislative relief. They denied the appeal. And then because the NCAA doesn't like to adhere to their standard protocols, which we know from 13 years back, Walker and UNC were able to go back and say, hey, we've got some new information we'd like to submit. The NCAA allowed that. They did that twice. And both of those times, the NCAA said, no, this is not acceptable.

We're going to deny it yet again. And so really what's going on tomorrow morning is that for the first time, Tez will be able to stand in front of the committee virtually. So they can actually see his face and they can hear him tell his side of the story in hopes to kind of piece some things together. But I really think that the point that the NCAA highlighted multiple times in his case file is the chronology of events with regard to his transfer from Kent State to North Carolina. Basically saying that if you look at the timeline, it doesn't really match with his claims of mental health. And that's the challenge right now.

All right. Can UNC sell to the NCAA, and I'm sure they've tried, if we're going to get into the chronology of it. The chronology says that when Tez Walker decided to transfer to North Carolina, the rules were different than the rules he is playing under today. I realize these two things are not the same, but people are blown away when I'd say that Barry Bonds never broke a Major League Baseball rule. Any steroid use that he would stand accused of was before there was a rule against steroids in baseball. So when Walker transferred from Kent State, we were operating under different rules. Correct. And when he transferred, that was the communication with UNC was, hey, I understand this is going to be my second transfer.

Are there a means, is there an avenue for me to become eligible? And because of the documentation he had with mental health, I mean, he's got a doctor from Kent State saying, hey, he's dealt with this. They thought that was an option. And then they also thought the fact that North Carolina Central did not play football in 2020-21, that that was another option. And then to your point, when he actually enrolls and they change the guidelines two days later, well, there's your third point. And so that's what Carolina and Tez Walker's group from the Trotties pushed tomorrow. I was like, look, mental health is number one. That's the most important thing.

But we also have these two other technical details that are critical to this conversation. Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina is joining us here on the Adam Goldter. You mentioned NC Central and in reading your piece, it also seems to me that the NCAA has gone back to his, I guess, year at Central where he was there and they canceled the season in 2020. And there was some notion that they were going to try and play in the spring.

They did not have a spring season. I guess he felt that he wasn't sure they would even play in the fall. So we bolted for Kent State and the NCAA is still considering that as an athletic situation that they said it was not a unique situation. So they're giving him no credit for that either.

Correct. And when you I think there's an issue to be made with the claim that it's not a unique situation because to hold North Carolina Central to the same standard of, say, in Alabama. I mean, everybody knows that that North Carolina Central does not have the funds or the means to compete with Georgia and Bama and those types of things. So there's there was a real risk that, hey, maybe they're not going to be able to do what they want to do in the fall. I really think kind of the key component of this is if you look at it from a 30,000 foot perspective, he went to Central in part because he knew he's going to be able to stay close to home. So when it came to a point where he was trying to decide, hey, do I do I transfer what's going to go here? He really had to take that into consideration. And he laid that out and has a pill letter that he sent an instant away back in the spring of, you know, this is a this is difficult situation because I didn't really want to leave being so close to home. But I really felt like I had no choice. And so that's another part of it. And it kind of goes in hand in hand with his idea of coming back to see grandmother and all those kind of things.

Let me say this, Adam. The issue that stands out most to me beyond the fact that the rules are changed after you enrolled is that if you look at the documentation that the NCAA provides in terms of mental health, it is a very this is the new rules. It is a very detailed list. You've got to have confirmation from a doctor at the previous school.

You have to have a medical plan in place. You have to get all these benchmarks. Well, Ted did that. And so you get to the point of, OK, he's met all the requirements. So why is the NCAA making a decision on mental health when that should be left to medical professionals? And I think that's one thing that you talk about.

Could this go to court? I don't know that. That would seem to be a dicey area for the NCAA. Well, court in and of itself is a dicey area for the NCAA, Greg. And that's where I was going to go next, because if the if Carolina, if she, Caroline, I don't want to put it in that context because I don't think it matters. And I've been saying for weeks that it's not my concern that North Carolina would be, you know, without the services of a talented their best, maybe wide receiver. My concern is always about what's best for the player. And if I'm Tez Walker, would it benefit me to simply get a lawyer and file for an injunction to allow him to play and take the NCAA to court? Where basically the NCAA is the 1962 Mets in court. So wouldn't I would not be well served to take my chances there?

What's the possibility? And I think one key distinction there, and I'm not a lawyer by any means, but with Walker transferring a second time, the way the guidelines are written is he would not be in position for that one time transfer exception when he transferred to North Carolina, because that had already occurred when he transferred from Central to Kent State. Thereby, he was ineligible, and he knew he was ineligible once he transferred to Carolina. And so the next step there, of course, was applying for a transfer.

Right. So he's been ineligible this entire time. So just in terms of an injunction, typically injunctions, maintain status quo status quo here is that he's ineligible.

So I assume there's a way maybe around that. That's certainly something to consider once they get through the appeal process, because that's, that's the whole thing Caroline has dealt with since 2010 is get through the whole process. And then if you don't like the result, at that point, you can start looking at legal options. Yeah, well, it's obvious that says Walker would need a better attorney than me. Well, just because I obviously couldn't win his case. But logic, logically speaking, because the rules change, and at the time that he transferred here, I think it would be pretty clear that he would likely have been granted eligibility, but I guess maybe not.

And it all depends on which way the wind blows when it comes to the NCAA. Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina. It is a great piece. I read it last night. I retweeted it out. And I appreciate your time, sir, especially on short notice. I wish I wish him the best of luck, because I think he deserves the right to play.

And I hope the NCAA acquiesces in this in this matter. But thanks for your coverage, man. Yep. Thanks, Adam. You got it.

Greg Barnes from Inside Carolina. It is a it is a great, great read. It's unfortunate.

But if you if you read it, it's hard to read it without feeling more pessimistic than you were beforehand. Because I'm like, why is this is a formality? And it's it's not just the way the NCAA has ruled and why the NCAA has ruled the way they have.

It's the fact that they have ruled so many times in that manner. And what we're hoping for is that the physical presence, even over a Zoom call, which will take place tomorrow, of Tez Walker will be finally the the item that tips the scales in the favor of North Carolina. And again, not in favor of North Carolina as much as in the favor of Tez Walker. I mean, I wouldn't if I were the NCAA, I would not consider the first transfer from Central to Kent State.

I would I just wouldn't. He never played for first Central and he left because he didn't think they were going to play. There was no there was no reason to think that in the fall of twenty one that they were going to play.

And let me just point this out. What was hockey like? What were they? If you went to Carolina Hurricanes games at the beginning of the twenty one twenty two season. What was that like? Or twenty twenty one season.

What was that like? Limited capacity, very limited capacity, right? But actually, the season didn't start until after the first of the year. It didn't start till January. Right.

In twenty and twenty one. Detroit Red Wings in February felt like opening night back in October. Right. So we had it was I would even say it wouldn't even say it was friends and family, like a hundred people inside PNC Arena when the twenty one season.

Drop the puck. So why would you think that Central that doesn't have media money coming in from the national network? Why would you think that they would be able to play?

If they couldn't have fans. So when this decision is made in by him after spring ball, because he went through spring football with Central, which is practice, no big deal. You can go practice. So when he went through spring ball and he still was not sure that the MEAC was going to play. I'd go to. Not that you were getting some, you know, tons of media money at Kent State, but there at least I think the MAC was relatively sure they were going to be on the football field. So this is I think the rules changed and I think he's he's justified in that transfer.