Michigan Football: What is going on with Shea Patterson?

Michigan football and Shea Patterson are still waiting on word from the NCAA on the quarterbacks status for the 2018 season.

When Shea Patterson first announced his intention to play for Michigan football, everyone knew there was a long road ahead towards 2018 eligibility. But did anyone know it was going to take this long?

With Spring practice right around the corner for Michigan football, it seems like a decision on Patterson is still a ways away. That news is thanks to some new reporting Tuesday by CBS Sports. 

The report says that the decision is still in a holding pattern. The reason though, is because the NCAA still hasn’t sent the request to Ole Miss. And that isn’t just in the case of Patterson, but six former Rebels total that are waiting for a decision.

Here’s the timeline. Back on Feb. 26, Michigan formally filed the appeal on behalf of Patterson. At that point, it was assumed that Ole Miss would get the request and have 10 days to respond. Well, the NCAA, in all its genius, hasn’t even sent the proposal to Ole Miss, so that 10-day clock hasn’t even started.

Once it gets the request, Mississippi will have the chance to be in favor of him playing right away or opposing the move. Of course, since the former Ole Miss coaching staff straight up lied to Patterson and others, the university should say yes, but we all know there isn’t much integrity left in big-time college athletics, so don’t hold your breath.

Michigan Wolverines Football

At this point, Michigan is at the mercy of the NCAA. Whenever it decides to send the appeal to Ole Miss, a time frame, should theoretically be put in place. Yet, even now, this whole fiasco has gotten pretty ridiculous.

Patterson and the rest of his former teammates didn’t do anything wrong. So why are they being punished? And why can’t they get a timely response from the NCAA?

It was funny how the NCAA moved so swiftly to protect the NCAA Tournament and clear some of the players that had clouds hanging over their heads. Many of those were implicated in wrong doing, yet Patterson has never been implicated in anything improper. So why the delay?

It’s just the hypocrisy of the system. The NCAA is a supposed to be a non-profit, but we all know it only cares about dollar signs, TV ratings and how many people watch March Madness, its big money maker.

Patterson can still participate in spring football. It just would have been nice to know if he could actually compete for the starting job before it commences. However, I guess with the NCAA, that was always just a pipe dream.

Next: Top 15 Michigan quarterbacks of all time

And unfortunately for Patterson and the others, the wait continues.