The NCAA has denied a hardship waiver request from a college basketball player for the death of his father even though the NCAA grants such waivers to players who have sick parents.
Kerwin Okoro, a New York native, lost his father Stanislaus to a stroke and his brother to colon cancer during a two-month span last year and transferred from Iowa State to Rutgers to be closer to and help his mother, according to the New York Post.
The waiver would let a player play immediately without sitting out a season, but there is nothing in the NCAA bylaws about a waiver being granted for dead parents, so the NCAA did not allow it.
“I’ll make the wise decision of staying off social networks today, ’cause if I express my feelings right now, I might just say the wrong thing,” Okoro tweeted.
A similar situation occurred this week with Steven Rhodes, a former Marine who had initially been denied eligibility because of an oversight in the bylaws that deemed his participation in a recreational league on his Marine base to have been “organized” competition.
After public pressure, the NCAA ruled on Monday that Rhodes could play immediately.