HARDEMAN DECLARED INELIGIBLE DUE TO CLERICAL ERROR
Sep 23, 1998 | Football
September 23, 1998
D'Andre Hardeman, a senior running back from Houston North Shore High School, has been declared ineligible for the 1998 season due to not meeting NCAA satisfactory progress requirements.
A&M officials discovered an inadvertent clerical error in the posting of grades at the registrar's office which resulted in Hardeman being cleared for competition. The discovery was made after Hardeman had played in the first two games of the season. As a result, he is not eligible for the remainder of the season. There was no impropriety in the erroneous posting of the grades. The error was clerical in nature and was made outside of the athletic department. Besides this clerical error, no violation of NCAA and Big 12 rules was found.
This type of error has occurred previously at other institutions and is addressed in the NCAA manual. Hardeman, who has not redshirted during his collegiate career, may achieve another year of eligibility at the request of Texas A&M University. NCAA Bylaw 14.2.6 states, "a student-athlete may be granted an additional season of competition by the Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet when he or she participated in a limited amount of competition as a result of good-faith, erroneous formal declaration of eligibility by the institution's appropriate certifying authority. The competition must have occurred under all of of the following conditions: (adopted Jan. 16, 1993)
A. The competition occurred while the student-athlete was representing an NCAA member institution;
B. The competition occurred within 60 days of the date the student-athlete first reported for athletics participation;
C. The student-athlete did not participate in more than two events or 10 percent (whichever number is greater) of the institution's completed events in his or her sport. All competition (including a scrimmage) against outside participants shall be countable under this limitation in calculating both the number of events in which the student-athlete participated and the number of completed events during that season (both segments) in the sports; and
D. The student-athlete was involved innocently and inadvertently in the erroneous declaration of eligibility, which permitted the student-athlete to compete while ineligible.
Athletics Director Wally Groff has sent a letter to Louisiana Tech forfeiting the 28-7 A&M victory on Sept. 12, due to playing an ineligible player. How the forfeiture figures into the post-season bowl scenarios is still pending.
"I'm disappointed to learn that Tiki Hardeman will be ineligible for this season," Head Football Coach R.C. Slocum said. "This is a loss for our team, and a big disappointment for this young man. Hopefully, he can turn this into a positive by rededicating himself in the classroom and regaining his eligibility for next season."
Hardeman rushed for 105 yards on 24 carries and scored four touchdowns in the first two games of this season.
