On Tuesday morning Kansas State University announced that it had decided to allow Leticia Romero to transfer away from the school ending a month long ordeal for both Romero and the school.
So much for final and binding, huh?
Romero initially asked Athletic Director John Currie for a release from her scholarship after former Head Women’s basketball Coach, Deb Patterson was fired following a disappointing season. Her first attempt to transfer was denied following concerns that Currie had about possible tampering by the former head coach and her staff.
An appeals committee also denied Romero a leave from her scholarship, which was followed by Romero’s lawyer threatening legal action if Romero wasn’t allowed to transfer immediately.
The school’s apparent change in heart was sparked last week, when a letter to the appeals committee from AD John Currie surfaced in the media imploring the committee to allow Romero to transfer.
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His own change of heart coming after he spoke to Romero, dispelling any notion that tampering had in fact occurred.
As we know the appeal committee denied Romero her transfer again, this time accompanying a statement from the committee stating that the decision was “final and binding”. A new institutional policy was what in the end saved Romero and the school future pain and suffering.
The new policy allows John Currie to grant the transfer of any student-athlete if new information surfaces in the case. Currie had been pushing for the new policy recently and it is the first time transfer policy has been changed since Currie has been in Manhattan.
The school retroactively applied the new policy to Romero’s case and granted her release.
When asked about her release Romero said that,
"” It’s awesome…I didn’t really expect it, but it makes me happy.”"
The release of Romero has eased the hearts of many in Wildcat land as there were many who felt that the initial denial of release was harsh and unwarranted. As the story became bigger it began to draw the ire of student-athlete rights advocate, Jay Bilas who is known for his twitter tirades against the NCAA and more recently Kansas State.
Almost daily Bilas would implore Kansas State to release Romero, using words and phrases like “embarrassing”, “abuse of power” and “laughable” when describing K-State’s stance on the issue.
Kansas State publicly releases football player to transfer, tries to distinguish from Leticia Romero: http://t.co/sRU8HvMkuC Embarrassing.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) May 14, 2014
Thankfully the embarrassment for the University has ended for the moment. Romero will be allowed to transfer immediately and receive financial aid for her basketball prowess, with the only stipulation being that she cannot transfer to another Big 12 school, a policy that isn’t unheard of and considering the situation fairly fair.