The NCAA granted Arizona guard James Akinjo a waiver to become immediately eligible this season ... which is exactly what he already was.
That is, if the Pac-12 holds firm to disallowing all sports competition until at least January.
As a midseason transfer from Georgetown, Akinjo was scheduled to be eligible to play in mid-December this season after completing the "year-in-residence" requirement of conventional transfers. Since the Pac-12 announced it wasn't going to let its teams play before January, Akinjo's eligibility became a moot point.
However, there are two items of significance behind this announcement.
For one, it signals that there are indeed movements behind the scenes to allow Pac-12 teams to play before January. The NCAA's Dan Gavitt has been looking at start dates in November and December, and there's no question that Pac-12 coaches won't want to get left behind if everyone else is playing (Colorado's Tad Boyle even told the Star that the Pac-12 needs to listen to Gavitt and that he hoped it would consider changing to an earlier date).
If the Pac-12 did walk back its January date for basketball as far as early December or November, Arizona wouldn't have to suddenly start worrying about Akinjo's eligibility again. He's taken care of one way or another now.
Secondly, the waiver also may indicate that the Georgetown situation Akinjo left was problematic for reasons he did not create. Georgetown said Akinjo was not involved with allegations of burglary and harassment involving other players.
Waivers for immediate eligibility typically have a lot to do with the previous school and whether things happened there that adversely affected an athlete for reasons not in their control. Jemarl Baker received an immediate waiver to play last season after dealing with knee issues at Kentucky, and Kentucky's support of his request appeared to help.
However, the NCAA has been more often granting waivers for immediate eligibility as it considers moving toward a one-time waiver for everyone, a vote that was pushed up to January.
