Tara Davis transfers from Georgia

Nobody really understands the new rules yet. She plans to compete one year at Texas and then go pro. I doubt that she even intended to attend classes next spring until this debacle. I bet she either tries to go pro now or she decides to stay at Georgia.

Norman wrote:

bloviating wrote:

The demands were probably too much. Petro rides his athletes and most American divas can’t take that for too long. Her jumping is probably not coming along as she imagined and he is probably pushing more and more needing her points. Her thunder was stolen by a more talented freshman coming in and producing in crunch time. Shame because he can coach the field.

She probably had a fantasy about what college life and athletics was going to be like. That fantasy likely didn't materialize. She probably started feeling the pressure to train, and perform. She may have felt like she was not a big fish anymore and treated like any other athlete. I have seen this happen many times. Coaches that cater to the "I am special" athlete are not benefiting the athlete long term.

It will be the same situation at Texas, if she wanted to be the "big fish" she should consider a school not in the 5 power conferences, anyway I hope she does not get discouraged, she is a great prospect, she should turn a lemon into lemonade by running some open races this season.

The new "rule" and portal removes the provision that schools can place restrictions on contacting other schools.

The one time transfer exception still applies.

The problem is that many people have the wrong perspective on this provision. The NCAA rule IN ALL SPORTS is that if you transfer you must sit out a year. Full stop. Then there is a one time transfer exception provision in many sports. It is called an EXCEPTION for a reason. It is not a given. No university BLOCKS anything, they merely don't grant an EXCEPTION to the established rule. Some might say that is semantics, I think it is significant.

The student-athlete has a right to appeal to a non-athletic review board at the university.

Perhaps in the future the NCAA will remove this EXCEPTION, but for now, it is the rule.

What's the top jumps school in the NAIA, or whatever league Canada has? No idea how good this girl is, I don't follow field, but it seems like you could get around ncaa rules by going to the naia or ccaa.

Wolf's Bane wrote:

What's the top jumps school in the NAIA, or whatever league Canada has? No idea how good this girl is, I don't follow field, but it seems like you could get around ncaa rules by going to the naia or ccaa.

Well, no offense intended, but she is a 6.70+ long jumper and a sub-13 hurdler. She needs consistent competition.

My guess is she see's the success that Flo has had with the hurdles, and that is one of the keys in this potential move.

Petros is currently the most successful multi's/jump's coach in the NCAA, and deserves big respect, too.

She should transfer and redshirt a year. She will get better and she is able to compete in some meets unattached and then compete in the US championships in July.

I honestly think she blew it as far as timing goes. Can you think of a single program that would train an athlete all fall and then grant an exception to compete a month later for another team? I don't blame Petros at all. Whatever her issues are, she should have made the move after last June's NCAA's. Petros may not have granted an exception if she went to an SEC school, but her odds of not losing a full year of eligibility would be higher.

She needs to suck it up and sit out the year.

CantHaveItAll wrote:

I honestly think she blew it as far as timing goes. Can you think of a single program that would train an athlete all fall and then grant an exception to compete a month later for another team? I don't blame Petros at all. Whatever her issues are, she should have made the move after last June's NCAA's. Petros may not have granted an exception if she went to an SEC school, but her odds of not losing a full year of eligibility would be higher.

She needs to suck it up and sit out the year.

That is likely why Petros made the comment that she is very fit... whether some see that as 'salty' or not, is their own opinion.

If she did have a great fall season of training, and is ready to go 6.80+ and 12.75, the majority of coaches in the NCAA would do the same thing.

It's akin to "Thanks for the best fitness of my life, I'm now gonna go to this team and beat you at NCAA's".

Creating a hostile environment isn't the way to go. Elite high school kids now know what to expect out of Kypriano, if they find themselves in a similar situation at UGA.

Shanked wrote:

Creating a hostile environment isn't the way to go. Elite high school kids now know what to expect out of Kypriano, if they find themselves in a similar situation at UGA.

Well Kendal Williams is now going pro, even though he has one more year of eligibility left.

Denying an exception ; mid-year; to a strong athlete who wants to compete immediately isn't a 'hostile environment'.

Posting a catty 'good luck' tweet with too much info isn't 'hostile'.

I don't know what the UGA training environment is like. The coach wants champions. period. But declaring it a 'hostile environment' based on what we know publicly is a bit much.

Would I want my kid there? No, but not because of the Tara Davis situation. I think the only thing wrong with the way he handled it was outing Texas as her choice.

If she thinks this is hostile, the 'real world' is going to knock her on her butt.

What’s the hostile environment you are talking about? She has created that with her video lol. Kyprianou is only protecting his team. Georgia offered her to stay and get full release in June and she just wanted to leave now in the middle of the season and go compete for a rival team!!!also why didn’t she ask to leave before the semester started? She didn’t handle this well. There is a big difference between elite high school athletes that are serious hard workers and elite high school Divas.

Hmmm123 wrote:

What’s the hostile environment you are talking about? She has created that with her video lol. Kyprianou is only protecting his team. Georgia offered her to stay and get full release in June and she just wanted to leave now in the middle of the season and go compete for a rival team!!!also why didn’t she ask to leave before the semester started? She didn’t handle this well. There is a big difference between elite high school athletes that are serious hard workers and elite high school Divas.

Very interesting.

At no point during her stay at UGA, was she referred to as a "diva" by anybody associated with that program. It wasn't until she announced the transfer that Petros put a black hat on her and the darts began to fly.

"protecting his team"? Nah Dawg! Then why would he fight so hard to keep a diva around for an additional semester? He would have been showing her the exit door if protecting the team.

Why didn't Shae Anderson ask to leave Oregon before the semester started? Sheet happens. Who knows what goes on in the brain of a young lady? The difference is that Shae will be competing against her former Ducks this semester on behalf of in-conference foe UCLA, while Tara will be sitting on the sideline for a year. Shae didn't get shanked by coach Johnson. Choose your coaches wisely athletes.

The UGA program is now keeping company with the likes of Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. and his Liberty University (remember Ednah Kurgat?). Not the type of company I'd want to keep.

I am starting to hope that she tries to go pro and finds out how the world works.

I still don’t get the transfer rules.

Although still on the website, that link does contain out of date information under the "permission to contact" section.

That has been superseded by the new "transfer portal".

For those wondering what has changed, the new school can now encourage the athlete to transfer and offer immediate scholarship support. Before, that could not happen without written permission from the original school.

But the athlete still does not get immediate eligibility by right if the original school opposes.

There is new guidance for this academic year that spells out in some more detail what the NCAA would look for in a "hardship" case that would overcome a school's opposition. And there are attorneys who specialize in these cases when the stakes are high enough.

Davis may be too small a fish.

She has no hardship. Just the opposite.

Selfish not small fish wrote:

She has no hardship. Just the opposite.

I'm sure that's what a lot of people, particularly UGA fans, would say about QB Justin Fields.

Yet I wouldn't bet against him getting eligibility to play next season for Ohio State, with the benefit of the services of attorney Tom Mars.

The NCAA does not lay out a blueprint for how to get a school to drop its opposition to a release. But Mars makes a living making it happen.

And Tara Davis didn’t get shanked by Petros. Cute story, though.