PANAMA CITY, Fla, (WMBB) – Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis threatened to take immediate legal action against the NCAA on Friday, in relation to an FSU player’s eligibility status.
Florida State defensive tackle Darrell Jackson Jr. was ruled ineligible by the NCAA in August after transferring from the University of Miami.
Jackson filled out a hardship waiver allowing for his eligibility since he transferred to be closer to his sick mother. He was denied the request to play this season.
However, University of North Carolina Wide receiver Tez Walker, who had a similar situation to Jackson, was granted eligibility to play earlier this week.
Patronis expressed his disapproval of the NCAA’s decision.
“The NCAA are a bunch of out-of-touch hypocrites. North Carolina threatened antitrust allegations and they punted to save face on their terrible decision. The NCAA has placed him into a lose-lose situation: if you take care of your family, you can’t play football? What kind of decision is that” said CFO Jimmy Patronis.
“The longer the NCAA takes to make this clear and obvious decision to allow Darrell to play football this season, the sooner we’ll decide to pursue legal action”, Patronis added.
A letter has been sent to the NCAA and additional information will be updated about further actions.
