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Some Texas Tech football players could get another year with NCAA's new waiver
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- Some Texas Tech football players could get another year with NCAA's new waiver
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Offensive lineman Sterling Porcher is the first Texas Tech football player primed to take advantage of a blanket waiver the NCAA granted this week giving former junior-college players another year of eligibility if they were finishing up this season.
Porcher is looking to use that extra year elsewhere, however. He announced Thursday he'll have his name entered into the NCAA transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining.
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The NCAA granted the blanket waiver after a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction that will allow Vanderbilt senior quarterback Diego Pavia to play another year . According to The Nashville Tennessean, Judge William Campbell ruled the NCAA norms that would have kept Pavia from playing in 2025 because of his two years at New Mexico Military Institute violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Campbell issued the injunction on Dec. 18. Though it pertained only to Pavia, the NCAA responded with a blanket waiver to other such players, seemingly to head off more lawsuits.
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Some Texas Tech players who were exhausting their eligibility this season could benefit. The most notable are Davion Carter, who started 11 games at right guard, and Porcher, who started eight games at left guard and two at left tackle. Carter started his career at Northwest Mississippi Community College, Porcher at Iowa Western.
Though the waiver will pertain mostly to former junior-college and NAIA players, the wording is athletes who once played collegiately at "non-NCAA" schools. That could loop in senior defensive back Devynn Cromwell, who came to Tech from the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Tech coach Joey McGuire said Thursday he believes "there's a good chance (Carter) will be back" and that "we're trying to get the exact ruling on Devynn Cromwell, who played in Canada."
Texas Tech offensive lineman Sterling Porcher attends practice, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, at the Sports Performance Center.
Because Tech has added 17 players via the NCAA transfer portal, the Red Raiders project to be nearly 20 players above next year's expected 105 roster limit. The waiver for former non-NCAA players could grow the number.
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"The ruling, time-wise, is really, really tough," McGuire said, "because we've been really aggressive in the portal and have added to this team, and so now it becomes a numbers deal.
"I can't figure out how I feel about the ruling. ... We still recruit a lot of high school players, but man, it just seems like every rule is totally against high school recruiting, because it just starts pushing them farther and farther down the line."
McGuire said Porcher still will start on Friday in the Liberty Bowl.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football players could get another year with new NCAA waiver
