By most accounts, and if he decides to at least temporarily give up a career in minor league baseball, Russell Wilson appears ticketed for Wisconsin for his final season of football eligibility.
A recent visit to the school was described as “a grand slam”, and it now appears to be only a matter of when and not really if the ex-North Carolina State quarterback puts his verbal Herbie Hancock on a move to Madison. What looks to be a successful recruiting process that will likely end with Wilson in Badgers uniform in the fall, however, also comes with what appears to be a minor NCAA hiccup.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and following Wilson’s Tuesday-Wednesday visit to the school, UW wide receiver Nick Toon spoke to a local television station about Wilson.
“Whenever you can bring someone in of his caliber it is going to add some competition at the quarterback spot,” Toon told a TV reporter. “And competition brings out the best in everybody and that’s great. Hopefully he comes here.
“I met him last week. He seems to be a great guy. I liked him a lot. Hopefully we’ll see him in a Wisconsin uniform next fall.”
As noted by the Journal-Sentinel, that is an NCAA no-no as anyone connected to the school is not permitted to talk publicly about a potential recruit.Bylaw 13.10.2 of the NCAA Division I manual reads:
“Before the signing of a prospective student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, a member institution may comment publicly only to the extent of confirming its recruitment of the prospective student-athlete. The institution may not comment generally about the prospective student-athlete’s ability or the contribution that the prospective student-athlete might make to the institution’s team; further, the institution is precluded from commenting in any manner as to the likelihood of the prospective student-athlete’s signing with that institution. Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete’s eligibility.”
Also as noted by the paper, the violation appears to be minor in nature and should not impact Wilson’s eligibility at UW should he choose that as his next collegiate football destination.
Wilson, who received his release from NCSU in late April, has also visited Auburn, with Tigers head coach Gene Chizik publicly stating -- without mentioning the QB by name -- he wouldn’t be averse to adding a player such as Wilson.
"[W]hoever gives us that opportunity to win at Auburn — whether it’s a junior college transfer or high school (player) or whoever we feel fits the bill to continuously improve Auburn’s football team to give us a chance to compete for a championship — then obviously that’s my job and I”m for it.”