If ND does not dispute this, then he should be able to play..
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If a waiver request meets one of the 11 waiver standards adopted through the Division I governance structure, the staff can approve the request if it shows extenuating and extraordinary mitigating circumstances beyond the student-athlete’s control. If the staff denies the request, the student-athlete can appeal to the Division I Committee for Legislative Relief to be granted immediate eligibility.
Most of the waiver requests fall into criteria of no participation opportunity at the previous school; egregious behavior; student-athlete injury or illness; and family member injury or illness. But some of the waiver requests fall outside the guidelines of these categories and are approved based on the totality of circumstances.
Over 80% of the waiver requests are in men’s and women’s basketball and football. Because those sports are immensely popular, scrutiny on the decisions is high.
Within the NCAA national office, a staff normally reaches a consensus on whether a waiver should be granted.
“It is a collaborative effort,” says Jerry Vaughn, associate director of academic and membership affairs and part of the core staff that handles Division I waivers. “Having different perspectives matters, and it is also illustrative of how our membership makes decisions.”
When media or fans do not agree with a decision concerning the approval or denial of a student-athlete’s request to become immediately eligible, the portal or the people drawing the conclusions take the brunt of the criticism.
Hataway says most of it stems from the perception that if student-athletes place their name in the portal, the decision as to whether a waiver is granted isn’t handled on a consistent basis.
“You can’t compare a no-participation-opportunity waiver request to an injury/illness waiver request,” Hataway says. “Whether it’s right or wrong, the media and the public want to know how a case is being denied in an injury/illness case, but someone else is getting to play immediately in a no-participation-opportunity case. One is athletics-based, and the other is not.”
Each case is decided on its own merits. For example in a no-participation-opportunity waiver request, a student-athlete is more likely to receive a waiver if the student-athlete’s previous school agrees that a participation opportunity isn’t available instead of disputing the claim.
Link: http://www.ncaa.org/static/champion/what-the-ncaa-transfer-portal-is/