It’s game week. What happens if a Rahsul Faison decision doesn’t come by kickoff?
South Carolina begins its 2025 football season in less than a week and, well, the Gamecocks still have no idea if Rahsul Faison is able to play.
Nearly nine months after the Utah State transfer running back committed to the Gamecocks, the NCAA still has yet to make a public ruling on whether to approve or deny Faison’s waiver for a seventh year of eligibility.
And now the whole ordeal has crept into the danger zone, keeping alive the lingering question: What happens if there’s no ruling by kickoff?
Like Faison’s entire case, it’s complicated.
A university source told The State that if the NCAA does not provide a decision by game time, Faison will not be allowed to play.
But that’s assuming Faison and his camp stand pat, which is possible. There is also another option.
“If they were to not give us an answer or deny us,” said Faison’s agent, Bryan Miller, in a text, “we will consider legal action.”
What legal action might look like is even more confusing. Perhaps Faison’s camp could seek a temporary injunction in court, a move that would put Faison’s ability to play at the mercy of a judge’s decision.
Faison’s lawyer, Darren Heitner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If there is no ruling by Sunday, when South Carolina will open its season in Atlanta at 3 p.m. against Virginia Tech, things could get murky. Granted, those around Faison are still confident positive news will come before then.
“Hearing we will get a decision before the game. So really just letting God handle the rest,” Miller said. “We feel optimistic about the NCAA and their upcoming decision.”
That an extra year of eligibility is even on the table is the result of the immense amount of change Faison has endured as a college football player. Here, as we’ve detailed before, is his personal timeline.
>> 2018 — Though he committed to Stony Brook, Faison did not enroll due to academic issues. He instead enrolled at an all-boys college prep school in Connecticut.
>> 2019 — Committed to Marshall, but only as a grayshirt — meaning he wasn’t technically on the football team or on scholarship, forcing him to pay for his first semester of schooling.
>> 2020 — Faison moved home and didn’t play football. He took online classes at Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania.
>> 2021 & 2022 — Played at Snow College, a junior college in Utah.
>> 2023 & 2024 — Played at Utah State.
>> 2025 — Enrolled at South Carolina.
Explaining the delay for Faison ruling
South Carolina initially built its case to the NCAA on Faison’s eligibility clock and the hardship he encountered during his college journey. The NCAA denied that waiver a few months ago, per a university source, but allowed South Carolina to re-submit its case around a new focus.
The NCAA was hung up on the very beginning of Faison’s college career, needing to get clarification and paperwork about his eligibility dating back to his time at Marshall in 2019. The NCAA needed some responses and answers from Marshall, which was tough given very few folks there were around in 2019 and, the school just went through a change at athletic director.
And what could be some important precedent was established in between South Carolina’s first and second submissions to the NCAA. In late April, Rutgers football player Jett Elad — who also began playing college football in 2019 and spent time at a junior college — won an antitrust case against the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility.
Few of the details between Elad’s and Faison’s cases are different. And, per the university source, South Carolina used Elad’s positive precedent for Faison’s case.
Almost nine months ago, before the NCAA began handling his case at a glacial pace, Faison was about to head to Orlando to train for the NFL Combine. Then came the Pavia Rule. New life. He showed up at South Carolina in January, practiced all throughout the spring, looked like either the Gamecocks’ No. 1 or No. 2 running back at the spring game.
And then the came info that, well, no one was sure if he could actually play college football in 2025.
“It’s getting frustrating,” Beamer said in early May. “The fact that (the NCAA has) had everything that they needed from us since January and we don’t have an answer is frankly disappointing. ... We’ve given them everything they needed back in January. They asked for more. We gave them what they needed.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM.
