Saturday live thread: On Dorial Green-Beckham's potential eligibility

On DGB

So apparently OU officials are "confident" Dorial Green-Beckham will be eligible this year.

My stance is simple: He shouldn't be eligible next season. I loved him going to Oklahoma, in part because he would have to sit out a year. I loved the thought of him sitting out, learning to grow up a bit without football Saturdays (obviously he'd still be practicing), then coming back to play one more year in college despite the fact that he would be eligible for the pros. That seemed like the second-best scenario beyond "He stopped doing s*** wrong and didn't get kicked off at Mizzou in the first place."

Forcing him to sit out a year accomplishes a lot of symbolic things at the very least, even if his literal growing up process might or might not be aided by it any more than playing in 2014 would or wouldn't. But allowing him to play immediately, even if Mizzou or Gary Pinkel sign off, would completely warp the intent of the Runoff Rule, which was basically created to protect players from coaches treating them like cattle.

In September 2012, the NCAA Division I Subcommittee for Legislative Relief adopted guidelines for waivers based on an assertion that the student-athlete was "run off" by their previous institution. The NCAA staff is directed to grant relief in cases where an athlete is ineligible for the one-time transfer exception due to playing a sport which does not have the exception or because it is their second (or more) transfer between four-year schools. The institution filing the waiver on behalf of the student-athlete has to include the following documentation:

1. Documentation demonstrating that the student-athlete would not have had the opportunity to return to the previous institution’s team for reasons outside the control of the student-athlete.

2. A written statement from the applicant institution that the student-athlete is in good academic standing and meets all progress-toward-degree requirements at applicant institution.

3. A written statement from the student-athlete’s previous institution indicating that the previous institution supports the request.

The idea was simply that if a coach oversigns and has to cut some players, or he simply cuts a player because the player isn't good enough, then that player doesn't have to play by the same transfer rules since he's not transferring of his own volition. It wasn't created to find a landing spot for players who got kicked off the team for shaky/bad/awful conduct.

DGB's evidently not eligible unless Missouri cooperates, and with as much as Gary Pinkel has said "I love that kid" over the past four months or so, there's a chance that he and/or Mizzou say "Yeah, sure, let him play." And knowing he/they will say that is probably why OU officials are "confident." But the NCAA isn't a court of law, and technicalities don't have to succeed. The NCAA could easily say "That wasn't the intent of this rule, and you know it." The NCAA could also say, "Yeah, we don't want to set this precedent." They would be more than justified in doing so.

If NCAA approves DGB appeal, this week's lesson: Treat women how you want, just don't get charged.. BUT DONT YOU DARE TAKE OTCs

— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) August 1, 2014

But since we know that the NCAA basically spins a wheel to make its decisions, for all we know this is a slam dunk for OU, and DGB will play in 2014, five months after getting kicked off of his previous team because, after getting arrested twice for either smoking or at least being around a large pile of marijuana, he busted into a house, pushed a girl to the side, and dragged his girlfriend out of her apartment. That's simply not a precedent the NCAA wants to set, but there's a chance the NCAA lustily sets it. We'll see.

On Ole Miss

Missouri doesn't play Ole Miss this season, but here's my Rebel preview for SBN if you're interested. Basically, the next two years are huge for Hugh Freeze; start winning big, or stop signing top-15(ish) recruiting classes. And they probably won't win big (i.e .compete for the West title) this year.

On Guardians

So some members of the Rock M masthead (well, at least one) went to see Guardians of the Galaxy last night. It was apparently good.

We are Groot

— Rock M Nation (@rockmnation) August 2, 2014

So what's on your docket for this lovely August Saturday?