The wait is over. Well, let me re-phrase. The wait is over, officially.  

 

Unofficially, the wait has been over for months. 

 

WVU announced earlier via Dana Holgorsen's Twitter account that Will Grier was officially eligible. Official notification was necessary of course, but it didn't take top notch detective skills to know this was going to be the outcome for Grier.

 

A quick recap ... Grier sat out the final six games of the 2015 season after testing positive for PEDs while at the University of Florida. By rule, the suspension was supposed to be for one year (12 games). That would have meant Grier would have been required to miss the first six games of the 2016 season in addition to the six games he missed in 2015. But, Grier decided to transfer from Florida following the 2015 season and was therefore required to sit out ALL of the 2016 season, per NCAA transfer rules.

 

Since you shouldn't be allowed to 'transfer out of a suspension' many thought Grier would have to miss the first six games of the 2017 season.  WVU appealed that ruling, arguing Grier would be sitting out "extra" games due to the transfer.

 

If the NCAA required him to miss six games in 2017, he would have missed a total of 24 games due to suspension and transferring (six in '15 + 12 in '16 + six in '17 = 24). Had he returned to Florida for the 2016 season and served his full suspension, he would have missed a total of 12 games. 

 

In essence, WVU successfully argued that Grier had more than served his penalty by sitting out an "additional" six games on top of the original 12 game penalty. They asked the NCAA to make him eligible for the entire 2017 season. 

 

Stunningly, the NCAA agreed with WVU's logic. 

 

That to me is the shocking part of yesterday's announcement. The NCAA applied logic to a situation. When have we used 'logic' and 'NCAA' in the same sentence before?  This is one of the rare times in recent memory that I can recall the NCAA siding with the player regarding eligibility. 

 

The announcement was met with great enthusiasm among Mountaineer fans. But, really, the writing was on the wall for months. The fact that Grier worked with the first team all spring was the biggest indication that Dana Holgorsen was all but sure his would be the result. 

If WVU was at all concerned about Grier's eligibility, you can bet Chris Chugonov would have taken quite a few more reps with the first team in spring practice.

 

Whenever Holgorsen was asked about the suspension, he brushed it off without a bit of concern. "I was told not to worry about it" was a common refrain. There was never any indication from Holgorsen that there was cause for concern.

 

Grier handled his business off the field during his transfer year, setting up WVU with the opportunity to drop the news this week that he would be eligible for the start of the 2017 season.

 

The Will Grier hype train left the station months ago. Now we can just make it official.

 

Editor's Note: Top two photos courtesy of WVU Sports Communications. Bottom photo by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.