Interesting departure

[Ghost of the HEB]

Scholly pulled to make room for someone else?

Today I have to say goodbye to a huge part of my life. All I can do is thank my family, coaches, and teammates for letting me live out my childhood dream of playing for the Utes and being a college football player. Sad to move on but I’m excited for what next. Big fan Go Utes! pic.twitter.com/igNKZZjae2
— DYLAN SLAVENS (@dylanslavenz) July 1, 2021

[Central Coast Ute]

My guess is with the other players switching to WR, he needed to move on.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Could be, but Slavens was just put on scholarship in February of this year. Those position changes were known during spring ball. Not sure why they’d wait this long to pull his scholarship if it was for those changes.

[2008 National Champ]

you can’t “pull” scholarships without cause.

[Charlie]

I was thinking the scholarships were year to year. Possible he may be using one that went unused in the spring. My guess is after 4 years coaches know if he has a chance to play in a league game. The business side of football.

[2008 National Champ]

The Pac-12 has a rule that all scholarships are guaranteed for 5 years for incoming freshman. I’m not sure about the duration for step-ups but I can’t imagine that those are allowed to be pulled.

Other conferences don’t have the same guarantees but the Pac has been pretty adamant about trying to avoid even the appearance of schools treating their athletes as anything but students first.

You may be right that during the post-spring meetings with coaches, an honest conversation was had with this kid about his potential playing time – which is completely appropriate and I had before transferring – which caused him to consider and then enter the portal. But that is not the same as pulling a scholarship which was implied twice above.

[Charlie]

Would it be possible to allow a walk on a unused scollorship is the spring without a committment for more?  I would think that would benefit that individual.  Considering the number of walk ons and the slim resources for them, that would be a significant benefit.  I can imagine a rule that allowed only long term committments would not benefit the walk ons in the spring, open one semester spots would then go unused to be used later in the primary recuriting cycle.  One semester scollorships are still very helpful to walk ons.  I honestly do not know the current rules.

[2008 National Champ]

I am sure that as a member school of the Pac-12, Utah can’t pull scholarships without cause. I am also willing to believe that Whitt would not award a scholarship to a walk-on, only to pull it a couple of months later.

Anything after that would be pure speculation and there has to be an NCAA rule somewhere regarding how partial year scholarships factor into the 85 limit.

[Anfernee]

From his Instagram “I look forward to making big decisions about furthering my education with a masters program and continuing to play football at the university of Utah for my remaining 2 years of eligibility, or exploring internships, and possible job opportunities. These last 4 years have meant everything to me and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity.”

[Utesbyfive]

Sounds like his top priorities don’t include football honestly, and that’s just fine. I wish him well.