When the NCAA handed out it’s notice of allegations and sanctions, including a bowl ban, it sent more than six Rebels off searching for new schools. That included Jacksonville native Van Jefferson.
“I had a lot of schools that hit me up when I came out. I took a visit to Michigan, I took a visit to Louisville but when I came down here it was just different,” Jefferson said. “Of course Michigan is a great school. Louisville is a great school too but there was just something about Florida. Coach Gonzales and Coach Mullen when I came here really interested me. I just took the visit and felt like it was the place for me.”
Under current NCAA rules Jefferson and the rest of the Ole Miss transfers would be required to sit out a season because he transferred from one Division I program to another. Jefferson and the rest of his former teammates plan to petition the NCAA to try and receive a waiver to bypass that rule and allow for them to be eligible immediately.
The NCAA already ruled that any senior on Ole Miss’ football team would be eligible to transfer and play immediately. The six non-seniors are making a case that they were misled during the recruiting process, by the coaching staff not disclosing the depth of the allegations and possibility of sanctions, and because of that should be granted a waiver to play in 2018.
The process will begin when each school submits paper work to the NCAA laying out their case for why an individual —Jefferson in Florida’s case — should be eligible for the 2018 season. The NCAA then reviews that and sends it off to Ole Miss. The Ole Miss athletic department will review the case made and can reply in one of three ways. They can agree with the case made, disagree or give the NCAA what essentially would amount to as a “no comment.” Ole Miss has 10 business days to respond to each case it receives. Florida has yet to file that paperwork with the NCAA, but Michigan has done so in the case for quarterback Shea Patterson.
“I talk to Shea all the time and we talk about it and everything like that,” Jefferson said. “We’re hopeful that it goes our way and everything like that but we’ll see.”
Florida and the other schools will likely wait to see what the outcome is with Michigan, even though they have yet to receive word back. Along with Michigan and Florida, UCF, UAB, Georgia Tech and Houston accepted transfers from Ole Miss but only Michigan has filed paperwork. Since Michigan has filed the other schools will be able to see what case Patterson and the Wolverines made and go from there.
For now, Jefferson is going through practice with the Gators, making the most of each one as he assimilates himself into a new system with new teammates. It’s a waiting game and out of his hands.
“It’s not stressful,” he insists. “I just gotta take it one day at a time. I’m just hoping that it goes my way and everything like that. Right now I’m just out here competing with these guys, learning a new offense and everything like that. We’ll see where that goes.”