Tate Martell Just Played The NCAA Like A Fiddle

Tate Martell is officially eligible to play for Miami this season. (Thanks for making the decision finally, NCAA).

Tate deciding to transfer from Ohio State is one the biggest story lines in the forever long off season. (Is it August yet?) Once Justin Fields decided to head to Columbus because he wasn’t ever going to start at UGA, Tate jumped ship immediately.

As much as I want to make fun of him because it feels like he just can’t handle the pressure of competing  for a starting spot with Fields (for the record, he did the same thing in recruitment with A&M and Nick Starkel)…

But this is more about the NCAA. Obviously he’s not the first player to request a transfer and he’ll obviously not be the last. But the difference here is that he was 1000% transparent on WHY he wanted to transfer.

He wanted out because he knew he’d lose his job to Justin Fields. And the NCAA still granted him immediate eligibility.

Sure, his waiver can claim it’s because Urban Meyer is no longer the head coach. They can claim Urban knew (he did) that the program was in disarray. Throw the Zach Smith situation in because nobody is going to argue with how much of a shit show that was. Technically you can put those things in a “hardship waiver” that involves “circumstances that are outside the student-athlete’s control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete” because Ohio State was a clown show off the field last year and it would make sense.

But lets call a spade a spade here. He wanted to be QB1. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it worked.

Tate just exposed one of the many NCAA weaknesses. Too many rules are left up to interpretation anyway. But because they granted him immediate eligibility when he so clearly wanted out because of playing time, the flood gates are about to come FLYING open for transfers.

I’m not even being dramatic. Things are about to change.

Kids that want to get PT somewhere else are going to find reasons that semi-make sense in order to get out of their current situation. They’ll enter the portal and submit a waiver even if it’s a clear as day that they just want to play somewhere else. Hell, they might not even have to sit out a year. Both Justin Fields and Tate Martell just proved that they can transfer without any penalty at all.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s pretty soft that Tate wanted out of OSU because he knew he wasn’t going to get playing time. But I hate the NCAA so much that I will 10/10 side with the athletes. Coaches are allowed to leave at any given point for any given reason so technically, athletes should be able to do the same thing. Plus, he exposed a weak link and I’m here for it.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. The NCAA “is ass, my dude.”

Free agency, here we come.