The Notre Dame chapter in the Demetrius Jones saga effectively ended Friday when the school agreed to provide a release, with minimal conditions, to its erstwhile QB.
Where will Jones eventually stop? Perhaps no one but the ex-Morgan Park star knows, but he should expedite the decision if he wants to play in 2008.
Jones and his uncle met with Notre Dame officials, including athletic director Kevin White and compliance chief Mike Karwoski, for several hours Friday and walked out with his release in hand.
That was the conclave Notre Dame had wanted ever since Jones, the starter in the Irish’s season opener, skipped the team bus to Michigan last Friday and raised the curtain on a week’s worth of melodrama. The lack of a sit-down was the central reason for initially denying Jones a release Tuesday, then denying him one specifically to Northern Illinois on Thursday.
Finally satisfied with the process, Notre Dame released Jones to any school the football team does not play during the course of his eligibility, which runs to 2010.
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“This whole thing was a decision made to put me back in the driver’s seat and to have options,” Jones told the Tribune. “So now I have options. Better to have and not need than to need and not have.”
Has he been admitted at NIU?
“Yep,” he replied.
It is believed he was in school at NIU on Sept. 12, the 12th day of the academic year there, which would meet the NCAA transfer requirement for eligibility next season. An NCAA spokesman said late Friday night that any student-athlete must be admitted at his destination school for the next season by the 12th day of classes this term.
Presumably, he still could be admitted to a school such as Northwestern or Ohio State that is on a quarter system and hasn’t been in session for 12 days yet.
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