Medical Hardship for Jeff Tuel?
According to the website Cougfan.com, Washington State is "in the process of filing papers with the NCAA to seek an additional year of eligibility for Jeff Tuel...via medical hardship waiver."
Tuel, a former quarterback at Clovis West High School, will be a senior in 2012. He broke his clavicle in the Cougars' first game of 2011 and missed most of the season.
Here is the website's explanation of a medical hardship: |
With medical hardships, the rule is basically built around two benchmarks: First, that the player played in less than 30 percent of the season and second, that the injury/illness occurred prior to the first game of the second half of the season.
With Tuel, the issue isn’t the 30 percent threshold, because he’s well below that, but rather, one of timing. The rule says the injury, in a 12-game season, has to occur prior to the seventh game. Tuel played in just three games all year, but his last one was in Week 7 against Oregon State. Here's where it gets interesting: In the three games he played in, Tuel effectively took only 50 percent of the offensive snaps, meaning he truly played in about 1 ½ games this past season. So the spirit of the rule suggests the Cougs may have an argument for him getting an extra year. |
