UNC football rumors: Tar Heels expect good news on Tez Walker eligibility

Great news is expected to come out for UNC football player Tez Walker sometime next week.

The NCAA needs to do the right thing and make UNC football player Tez Walker eligible for 2023.

Walker committed to North Carolina Central out of high school. With the Eagles’ 2020 season being cancelled due to COVID, Walker transferred to Kent State where he starred for the Golden Flashes at receiver the last two years. With head coach Sean Lewis leaving to be Deion Sanders’ offensive coordinator at Colorado, it made all the sense in the world for Walker to come home.

Walker transferred to North Carolina in December so that he could play closer to his grandmother. Believing that he would be eligible to play immediately, Walker was crestfallen when he found out the NCAA would not let him be eligible. Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown has fought the NCAA tooth and nail to do the right thing and let young man play. His 2020 season was canceled, y’all!

Here is a bit of what Brown had to say about his transfer wide receiver’s eligibility status of late.

"“Tez needs to be able to play. That’s the only fair thing for him, and people need to stand up for it because that’s an area we need to get changed. We went from everybody being eligible to now nobody’s eligible, and neither one of them are fair. Neither one of them are right. So let’s do what’s right. For the NCAA, let’s don’t say we care about student welfare, and let’s don’t say that we care about mental health unless we do. And here’s a great opportunity to show that we do.”"

But over the last few days, there seems to be a notion that the NCAA could be changing its mind.

If Walker is deemed eligible, he would be able to play in the Tar Heels’ first game of the season vs. traditional rival South Carolina. Let’s just hope that Charlie Baker and the NCAA do right by him.

UNC football rumors: Tez Walker could be ruled eligible for 2023 by next week

Whether it be NIL, the transfer portal or even conference realignment, college sports are in a very weird and unprecedented place. While athletes are being compensated for their names, images and likenesses, this has gotten a tad slimy due to the unregulated nature of them. It is not about rewarding players for their performances, but rather as a means to induce high school prospects.

Conference realignment is all about creating more great games on television. Tradition-laden rivalries be damned, but new ones will be created in the hopes of something better. However, the transfer portal part of all this is the one thing that needs to get figured out the fastest. Should everyone get one free transfer? Yes, but guys in Walker’s camp should be given exemptions here.

In the old system, he might be able to claim essentially a 2x hardship waiver. Not only did his former head coach at Kent State leave for another job, but Walker could argue for moving closer to home in Chapel Hill. Players switch schools all the time for these very reasons, let alone when they are combined like this. Given that COVID took his freshman season away, it is time to give it back!

Let’s hope the rumors are true and that Walker will be deemed eligible by sometime next week.