I don’t know if you’ve heard the story or not, but a University of Tennessee player from Saginaw, MI wants to transfer out. He has an ailing father who has suffered a few heart attacks and has had dialysis. So DeAnthony Arnett (who was a 4 star WR) wants to transfer close to home in order to be with his father. Arnett was strongly considering Michigan or Michigan State before deciding to go to Tennessee so it is the assumption that he wants to go to one of those. Nope, not if coach Dooley has something to say about it. Here’s a quote from Arnett’s statement.
“Coach Dooley has singled two programs that I can’t get an unconditional release to and they are the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.So Arnett can go anywhere but those 2 schools on scholarship? What happened to schools being supportive of their students? It’s not like the kid just decided he didn’t like Tennessee and wants to go home. His father is having medical issues. He can get an “extenuating family circumstances" clearance from the NCAA and won’t have to sit out a year for transferring, but according to coach Dooley, he can’t go to the only 2 BCS schools near his home because they won’t do an unconditional release to any schools that they “play or recruit against.”
He told me I can attend any Mid American Conference school I want and if I wanted to attend either The University of Michigan or Michigan State University I would have to pay for school instead of be on scholarship. I don’t know what’s next. My family can’t afford to pay for school, but my father’s poor health isn’t a good enough excuse for me to attend a BCS school close to home.
Therefore as a student athlete I feel coach Dooley is trying to hinder my success by not allowing me to compete at a BCS level and neglecting the fact my father is severely ill.”
At this point, it doesn’t even matter if he comes to Michigan or not. What Dooley is doing is BS! Did I mention that the 2 best academic schools are also Michigan and little brother? So let’s penalize a guy trying to take care of his family. You won’t pay collegiate athletes because their pay is education. But you stop him from getting the best education possible within his means because he wants to leave your athletics. Typical NCAA BS! From what I’m reading, this is all Dooley. Although his school's silence speaks volumes as well. I’m not even going to put coach in front of his name anymore because any type of school's coach’s first priority should be his players' education. From what I hear, Dooley is receiving all kinds of bad press over this, which he deserves. Let’s hope they change their mind and let this kid go where he needs to go. At this point it doesn’t even have to be Michigan. He just needs this to be fixed so he can have time with his family and get the best education possible.
***UPDATE – Mgoblue.com is reporting that they have had a change of heart due to the fact that they look like jackass’ in the media. My words, not mogoblue.com’s.
