When Saint Thomas applied last month for a waiver with the NCAA for a fifth season of eligibility, the USC forward figured he had a compelling case. As a sophomore at Loyola Chicago, he’d fallen into a depression so deep that he considered suicide. Unable to find the help he needed, he left the school midway through the season to address his mental health, unsure if he’d ever play basketball again.
Two years after that dark stretch, Thomas hoped that the NCAA might help him get that lost season back. After an up-and-down senior year with USC, he wanted another chance to prove himself before going pro. USC officials, he says, told him a medical waiver would be a sure thing.
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But last week, Thomas’ request for a waiver for mental health reasons was denied by the NCAA.
“My head was kind of all over the place,” Thomas said. “I’m not a kid that’s just saying they have a mental health problem, or a kid that’s just asking for another year to play college basketball. I feel like I really deserve it. I’m a real advocate of mental health now. I speak on it in interviews. I’m open about it. I think I can be a helping hand.”
Thomas is one of many college basketball players with no remaining eligibility who have entered the transfer portal in recent days, hoping that either the NCAA grants them a waiver or a potential court ruling in one of several cases upends the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rules.
Fellow USC forward Rashaun Agee, who followed Thomas into the transfer portal Tuesday, was among those also keeping his options open, hoping the courts would clear the way — in his case, for a seventh year at the college level. His case for another year of eligibility centers around the season he spent at Casper College, a junior college in Wyoming.
Both have yet to find resolution with the NCAA. But Thomas has since filed an appeal that he says provided more answers about his mental health struggles.
“I’m just really hoping they feel some sympathy for me,” Thomas said.
The door could be open for a return to USC for Thomas or Agee, if either is able to secure a waiver for another season. Though that door won’t stay open forever.
Thomas said he still hopes USC will pursue him. But he also understands that Eric Musselman, USC’s coach, can’t hold spots on the roster out of hope that he’ll get a waiver. He’s also aware of the new players who have been added to the team, many of whom play similar roles to what he would bring. Just one of USC’s scholarship players from last season’s roster — forward Terrance Williams — is currently slated to return, while seven transfers have committed to the Trojans.
“I just want all of my options open,” Thomas said. “I talked to the coaches about it, and they still said they’d want me back on the team.”
Agee, in the aftermath of USC’s Big Ten tournament loss, made clear that he also hoped to return to USC if he could. That path has yet to be cleared.
“Hopefully it all works out for me,” Agee said then.
As lawsuits continue to pile up challenging the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rules, it’s not out of the question that the courts could deliver for players like Agee who are crossing their fingers for another season of eligibility. In New Jersey, a federal judge is believed to be considering a preliminary injunction in a case that challenges the NCAA’s rules regarding athletes completing their eligibility within a five-year window. That’s the primary issue holding Agee back from another season.
For Thomas, any hope of playing again at USC lies with the NCAA. And its track record with granting waivers for mental health reasons is mixed.
“I’m just trying to be as hopeful as I can,” Thomas said. “But I know there’s a hundred other kids through the process I am. It’s just this big gray cloud over everything right now.
The transfer portal closed Tuesday night, but the Trojans’ roster situation remains fluid. Musselman currently has 10 players for 15 available roster spots, and with those five openings, it’s unclear how much USC would be willing to offer Thomas in a name, image and likeness package.
So for the time being, Thomas is left in limbo, lingering in the portal like so many others without eligibility, left to wait on word from the NCAA or cross their fingers for the courts, wondering where their basketball careers could take them next.
