No reason for uproar over Alan Bowman's 7th year | Williams
An NCAA panel last week granted Oklahoma State quarterback Alan Bowman a seventh year of eligibility, and it touched a nerve apparently with quite a few folks.
Online commenters spewed all sorts of opposition. Here are some of the reactions I read: How in the world does Bowman get a seventh year? The nerve of that guy. He's gaming the system. And, the one size fits all disagreement: The NCAA is just getting ridiculously lenient.
While the ruling body does get stuff wrong, it only followed the rules in this case. So let's look at why Bowman will be suited up again next season. He gets:
Four years to play: Standard for all college football players.
One redshirt season: Standard for all college football players.
One COVID-bonus season: Available for all college athletes who played in the COVID-disrupted 2020 season.
A medical hardship waiver: Available to any college football player who suffers a season-ending injury in the first three games or 30 percent of a season, as Bowman did in 2019 while playing for Texas Tech. In fact, an Oklahoma State senior associate athletics director, in the announcement, thanked "the Texas Tech training staff for providing us the documentation we needed to quickly process our waiver request."
The only thing different these days is the COVID-bonus year. That'll go away when all those who played in 2020 have completed their eligibility. Texas Tech offensive lineman Cole Spencer was in his seventh year this season — his extra eligibility was granted right after the Texas Bowl in 2022 — and former Tech quarterback Tyler Shough will be on his seventh season next year at Louisville.
Nothing wrong with any of that. All appropriate.
The outrage machine for Bowman cranked up the night of the Texas Bowl when commentators for the OSU-Texas A&M game mentioned Bowman's applying for a waiver for the seventh year. There was no decision to be made, really, given that Bowman's injury-shortened 2019 season clearly met the requirement for a medical hardship waiver. There was no basis for denying it, no way this case was going to have any other outcome.
Another objection to Bowman's seventh year raised in the past few days is one that's been voiced since the NCAA granted players a free year of eligibility in the wake of COVID — that those guys staying on rosters longer is denying high-school players an opportunity.
Gimme a break. According to the latest data published in October by the National Football Foundation, we now have 772 four-year colleges and universities with an intercollegiate football team, 123 junior colleges and even 17 sprint-football programs — full-contact football for players 178 pounds or lighter.
That number is growing all the time, 96 colleges adding football teams since 2008 alone. Of the 772 four-year schools playing football, 15 are programs that played games for the first time this season or have launched and will play games in the next few years.
No, not everyone gets to play in a power conference, but there's no shortage of places to play.
The most amusing retort about Bowman getting the seventh year, though, came from a fellow who suggested that Bowman, quote, "Graduate already." Bowman has a bachelor's degree from the Texas Tech Rawls College of Business, a master's degree from Michigan's Ross College of Business and, given that college athletes must be enrolled to play, could add more qualifications.
I wonder how his critics' credentials measure up.
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: No reason for uproar over Alan Bowman's 7th year | Williams
