After two seasons as am NCAA Division II basketball standout, JT Shumate uprooted from Walsh University to Toledo this offseason and applied for a waiver that would grant him immediate eligibility.
The appeal seemed painless enough.
While the NCAA has traditionally required athletes to sit for a season upon transferring to another school, lately it’s been more lenient than the cool substitute teacher.
And, besides, Shumate had a compelling case. This wasn’t a malcontent lily-padding from school to school, but a dean’s list student who simply wanted to test himself in a bigger pond.
“I didn’t have any Division I offers out of high school,” said Shumate, a junior forward from Newark, Ohio, “but I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to play at this level.