Baker Mayfield, the star Oklahoma quarterback who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 2015, regained on Thursday what would have otherwise been a lost year of eligibility.
The transfer of a non-scholarship walk-on student-athlete has become one of the hottest talking points at the Big 12 Spring Meetings. Just one day earlier, team representatives were deadlocked 5-5 on awarding Mayfield -- and others like him -- an extra year of eligibility to make up for the one lost with his intraconference transfer from Texas Tech to Oklahoma.
For contest: Mayfield was a walk-on at Texas Tech who transferred to walk on at Oklahoma. He never had a scholarship offer from the Red Raiders and did not get one with the Sooners until after he was with the program for some time.
On Thursday, the Big 12 reps' re-vote was 7-3 in Mayfield's favor.
Amended "Baker Mayfield" rule passed 7-3. Because Mayfield did not have written scholarship offer from Texas Tech, he'll get back lost year.
— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) June 2, 2016
"I appreciate the Big 12 faculty athletics representatives spending more time studying the important issue of walk-on transfers and am pleased by the result of today's Big 12 vote -- not just because it potentially impacts Baker Mayfield, but because it was the right thing to do," Bob Stoops said Thursday.
Conference rules required that transfers sit out a season and lose a year of eligibility, regardless of scholarship status. Mayfield sat out the 2014 season after playing for Kliff Kingsbury and Texas Tech in 2013; the loss of eligibility had 2016 set to be his last year of Big 12 competition as Texas Tech refused to sign a one-year exemption for Mayfield, despite the fact that the team never offered him a scholarship.
"Our view at Oklahoma is that non-scholarship student-athletes should have the right to transfer without losing a year of eligibility," athletic director Joe Castiglione added. "With that in mind, we are very pleased with the result of today's vote of Big 12 faculty athletics representatives. With student-athlete welfare always on the front of our minds, today's decision was the appropriate one. I'm appreciative of the willingness of conference colleagues to consider -- and implement -- change that could benefit walk-ons in the future."
If the voters did not re-vote after Wednesday's stalemate, as they did on Thursday, then -- as Dennis Dodd pointed out -- Mayfield would have been able to play in another conference as a graduate transfer in 2017. Any chance of a team getting one of the best quarterbacks in the country gift-wrapped for 2017 is out the window now.
