Tulsa's Khari Harding ruled ineligible after NCAA revises eligibility hardship waivers

Defensive back Khari Harding left Auburn for Tulsa to be closer to his ailing father, but an NCAA rule change is putting a harsh halt to his dream.

Harding, who is from Edmond, Okla., had transferred from Auburn in hopes to play for the Hurricane and be near his father, Corie, who is battling cancer. 

A new NCAA amendment, which was ratified this week, immediately prohibits transferring student-athletes from applying for hardship waivers and allowing them to become immediately eligible. The new rule kicks in for the 2015-16 season.

The rule will keep Harding, a sophomore who has been taking courses at Tulsa for two months, off the field for the upcoming season.

"This pill is very difficult to swallow," Corie Harding said, according to Jason Kersey of The Oklahoman.

Previous to this week, the NCAA would award many student-athletes, in predicaments similar to Harding's, hardship waivers to play immediately after transferring. Now the revised rule will add an extra year of eligibility at the end of a player's tenure at a program instead.

Harding has the option to use a redshirt this season and retain two years of eligibiiity with the Hurricane.

With the uncertainty of the situation that his father is in, Harding was hoping to get a chance to play this year before his father wouldn't get a chance to see him play again.

"I'm not saying Tulsa’s bad or anything like that, and obviously it wasn't guaranteed that he'd be able to play anyway. But why would he have left a place he really, really loved if we had known this rule change was happening?" Corie stated. 

"His paperwork went in in January, and now they come out with this right in the middle of spring football? This is really, really devastating to hear."