Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz revealed some great news on Tuesday ahead of the Hawkeyes’ key road date at Wisconsin.
Sixth-year defensive lineman Noah Shannon is back on the roster and back practicing with the team.
“And then some recent developments that I’ll share, Noah Shannon has been cleared to practice. I don’t know what we’ll learn or when we’ll learn his status moving forward. But at least we have him on the field now. He’s back on the roster and able to be part of the team as a football player instead of a guy helping out a little bit. So that’s positive, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed as we move forward,” Ferentz said of Shannon’s return.
Of course, Shannon was suspended by the NCAA back in August for his involvement in sports gambling. Then, in September, his yearlong suspension was subsequently upheld on appeal. After the NCAA’s initial decisions, Shannon had been working with the team as a student assistant.
Now, after the Division I Council directed the Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement and Legislative Committee to reexamine the legislation and application of reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who engage in sports wagering, it sounds like there’s some light at the end of the tunnel for Shannon.
It was at the request of the Collegiate Commissioners Association that the Division I Council suggested reexamining the reinstatement guidelines last week. Specifically, the committees were set to review penalties for student-athletes who participate in sports wagering, but not on their own teams.
Draft concepts under consideration include the following:
- On a first offense, eliminate penalties that result in student-athletes being withheld from competition — regardless of the dollar value of the wagers and including bets placed on other sports at a student-athlete’s school — and require education on sports wagering rules and prevention.
- On a second offense, potentially involve withholding penalties, depending on the dollar value of the bet(s) in question.
- On a third or subsequent offense, resulting penalty could be a loss of one full season of eligibility.
For Shannon, that would mean a full return to action if these changes to sports wagering penalties do indeed come to pass.
When Ferentz said he, Shannon and Iowa planned to appeal the NCAA’s initial decision, he revealed that Shannon had bet on one of Iowa’s other sports teams.
“Yeah, so I know he bet on one of our other sports teams here, and I understand that may be a bad thing. He bet for them, and I’m guessing he got caught up in the emotion. Again, I don’t do this stuff, but it’s on their phones, people are enticing them with apparently three hundred bucks credit if you go with us, all that stuff. I think it’s just time to really recognize the world these guys are living in and maybe be a little bit compassionate towards that,” Ferentz said.
Now, it feels as though that’s how this saga is trending to ultimately play out. It’s a shame that the change in sports wagering enforcements would come past the midway point of Shannon’s final season, though.
Due to the uniqueness of the situation, Ferentz wasn’t sure on Tuesday when Shannon would be physically ready to return to game action.
“I really don’t know. We’ve never been in this situation. He missed a lot of time. He has a great attitude. He’s been around and was working through an injury. Probably couldn’t play physically until a couple of weeks ago. Hasn’t been in pads in quite a while now.
“So, we’ll see. But I don’t know even when the decision is going to be made so at least we have ample time to get him ready, hopefully,” Ferentz said.
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