Southern Miss basketball’s John Wade III will be immediately eligible to play this season after he and the NCAA agreed on a confidential settlement.
Wade had missed 18 games but will get to step on the court against Texas State on Saturday. The school issued a statement to The Pine Belt News after requesting a comment.
“The extension of eligibility waiver submitted by The University of Southern Mississippi on behalf of John Wade III has been approved pursuant to NCAA Division I Bylaw 12.8.1.7.1.3 (extraordinary and extreme hardship during the 2022-23 academic year) based on new information on behalf of Mr. Wade. We will have no further comment than to say we are happy for John and appreciative of all involved in the process.”
During the hearing last Friday, it was made clear during court that Wade only seeks to gain eligibility for the remainder of the current 2024-25 season, despite having the potential for more years of eligibility should the court rule in his favor.
Wade’s hardship occurred during 2022-23 season at Cal State Northridge, where he was he given medical redshirt instead of mental hardship health waiver after Wade experienced verbal and physical abuse from the then-head coach Trent Johnson. Wade saw mental health professionals, and the CSUN submitted a hardship waiver to the Big West Conference on Wade's behalf. Although Wade was granted an extra season to play, the year still counted towards his five years of overall eligibility, which is one of his motions that he contends.
Wade initially challenge the NCAA’s five-year clock rule under three separate motions, one of which included the mental hardship waiver. As of last Friday, Judge Taylor McNeel said he would make ruling based on challenging the NCAA for breaching antitrust laws on the grounds of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia's recently granted preliminary injunction. The judge in Pavia's case stated that the NCAA rules prevented him from playing in the 2025 college football season because his two years at a junior college violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.
However, McNeel granted a continuance because Wade's lawyers did not make it clear that the other motions in his arguments were satisfactory. McNeel accepted the antitrust law arguments and took the other motions under advisement. This past week, there further deliberations about Wade's other motions.
Wade has only officially played three full seasons of college basketball. Wade, who enrolled in college as a normal freshman at UC Davis during the 2018-19 school year and sued the NCAA to challenge the bylaws of the five-year-clock. The rule stipulates that a student-athlete cannot compete in any one Division I college sport for more than four seasons. These four seasons must fall within a period of five calendar years. Wade did not receive any college offers out of high school, but during his freshman year of college, he grew six inches.
Wade's collegiate basketball career began when he transferred to junior college Contra Costa College, where he was with the program for three seasons from 2019 to 2022. The school did not play basketball in the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the season at CSUN, Wade then transferred to Cal State Stanislaus, a Division II school, where he used his COVID year of eligibility. That year he averaged 12.3 points per game and 5.5 rebounds before arriving at USM.
Southern Miss holds an 8-10 overall record and 3-3 mark in Sun Belt play. The Golden Eagles will tipoff against Texas State on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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