Ole Miss files response to UM's Shea Patterson request

It appears a decision regarding the immediate eligibility of Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson, who transferred last December from Ole Miss, is nearing resolution.

Michigan’s compliance department completed Patterson’s waiver request to the NCAA late last month. Typically, a non-graduate transfer must sit one season before resuming eligibility. A copy of the request was sent to Ole Miss, which has the option to respond and may support or oppose it. Ultimately, the NCAA makes the final call.

“I can confirm that Ole Miss has delivered to the NCAA and the University of Michigan its response to Michigan’s request that Shea Patterson be granted eligibility to compete during the 2018 season,” Patterson’s attorney, Thomas Mars, said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m referring all questions about Ole Miss’s response and the NCAA process going forward to Dave Ablauf at Michigan Athletics.”

More: ‘Swaggy’ Shea Patterson gets high marks in UM practices

Ablauf said Michigan is "aware Mississippi has filed its report to the NCAA. We won’t have any update until the NCAA makes a decision."

Patterson, meanwhile, has been participating in spring practice, which began last Friday at Michigan.

Mars is representing several Ole Miss transfers who are petitioning the NCAA for immediate eligibility. He represented former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt in a defamation suit against the school, and has worked to try to prove former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze’s “egregious behavior.” Freeze and his staff, Mars has said, misled incoming recruits like Patterson, the top-rated quarterback in the 2016 class. Mars has documentation including phone records and text messages that appear to confirm his clients’ allegations.

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