Even for the most avid of college football fans, I doubt any of them have ever heard of this rule. It’s the kind of obscure thing that you normally overlook, but in the case of FSU player Corey Surrency it just might cost him big time. The rule states:
It is titled, “Participation After 21st Birthday,” and it mandates the following: If an individual participates in an organized sport after his 21st birthday, but before enrolling in college, that participation “shall count as one year of varsity competition in that sport.”
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Surrency was on pace to have a breakout senior season
Surrency was only an occasional player in FSU’s offense in his first year out of El Camino (Calif.) Community College, but he averaged almost 20 yards with four touchdowns on just 12 catches, showing the kind of talent and gamebreaking ability that made him one of the most sought after junior college recruits in the country. With his size, speed, and athletic ability it seemed that Surrency was on his way to a breakout senior season but now all that might be a jeopardy, both his degree and his football future.
Surrency, 24, grew up in rough part of Miami, dropped out of school in ninth grade and later spent 90 days in jail for what the Orlando Sentinel describes as “various crimes,” including felonies. After prison, Surrency earned his diploma, played a season with a “minor league” team, Tampa’s Florida Kings of the Southern Indoor Football League, and eventually headed cross-country to El Camino, where he caught on and earned scholarship offers from all over the country. Surrency played with the Kings after he had turned 21 and if he had not who knows if he would ever have gotten to Camino and eventually to FSU. Regardless, though, it seems that his time with the Kings has cost him his final year of eligibility, as least while Florida State appeals on his behalf.
If FSU loses the appeal, Surrency’s college football career would be over. And unless FSU gives him a non-atheletic scholarship to finish his degree which this blogger thinks would be a heck of a PR move in an ecomomic time like these it is conceivable that his pursuit of earning a degree in criminal justice would also be at an end. This would be even more devastating considering that he would be the first in his family to graduate.
Losing Surrency would be a major blow to the FSU receiving core
The rule, said NCAA spokesman Jennifer Kearns, is designed to “to minimize competitive advantage” by ensuring a “normal progression” through high school and the entry to college. Surrency, because his high school career was interrupted, got into the system too late.
This to me is crazy and had he joined the Florida Kings a year early this wouldn’t even have been an issue. Right now its about more than just football or even a degree, this is a young man’s life. This is the kind of life defining moment that can either send someone on to bigger and better things or send them spiraling out of control (i.e Maurice Clarett). The fact of the matter is that there exceptions to ever rule, no rule should be set in stone at least when it comes to college and sports. Surrency made some mistakes early in his life but he has been working ever since then to correct then and to be a good kid and by all accounts he seems that he has done that. So I say this the rule should be modified to be handled on a case by case rule and they should let the kid play and finish school because I am sure that had he known about the rule he wouldn’t have played for the Kings and to further more prove the point a major college program gave him a scholarship and they didn’t even know about the rule. This is one of those rules that unless the player knew or could have possibly known that playing for the Kings would affect his college eligibility then he shouldn’t be held accountable for something he didn’t know. So I say LET THE KID PLAY.
