The saga of Michael Bradley is one that has been written about a number of times over the past year.
After redshirting two years at UConn -- the second of which came after he gave up his scholarship for Andre Drummond, then actually didn’t give it up -- Bradley transferred to Western Kentucky and applied for a waiver to play immediately. It was his third year in college and he’d yet to be anything more than a practice player, but the NCAA still ruled that Bradley would have to redshirt yet again in order to play right away.
So Bradley left WKU and enrolled at Vincennes University, a Junior College in Indiana, so that he would avoid having to sit out yet again.
But all that movement raised the question: how in the world is Bradley going to get himself eligible to play Division I basketball again?
John Infante, who recently made the jump to a website called AthleticScholarships.net, answers that question. It is relatively simple, actually. All Bradley needs to do is take 12 credit-hours per term, spend a year at Vincennes and graduate from the school by the end of his time there. He should be able to get that done in a year.
But there is a catch. From Infante:In addition to meeting the transfer requirements, Bradley will need to meet the normal academic requirements. There are a number, but most of them are taken care of by meeting the transfer requirements. One though will be a bit tricky for Bradley.
When Bradley returns to Division I next year, he will have finished three years or six semesters of college. That means he will need to have completed 60% of his degree according to Bylaw 14.4.3.2. Normally that’s not an issue but it can be when an athlete transfers to a junior college after his second year.
Junior colleges offer few upper division courses, and normally a student-athlete will need at least a few higher level courses to reach 60% degree progress in most majors. Bradley will need to choose his curriculum well at Vincennes, and his need to reach the degree percentage requirement may affect his choice of school and major.
Here’s to hoping that Bradley, who by all accounts is a good kid that made it out of a difficult situation growing up, is able to find some success at the collegiate level before his eligibility runs out.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.