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Kansas State: Leticia Romero ruling ‘final and binding’

Leticia Romero, Nina Davis

AP Photo

AP

Leticia Romero will not be getting her release from Kansas State anytime soon, according to a statement released by the athletic department late on Wednesday night.

“There is no university procedure to reexamine one of those decisions,” the statement, written by VP of Communications and Marketing Jeffery Morris, said. “Thus, the university’s procedure concludes with the Appeal Committee’s decision. Also, the final and binding nature of these decisions does not allow for them to be overturned by university administrators.”

If you have not been tracking this story, Romero, a native of Spain, was a freshman on the Kansas State women’s team last season, leading the 11-19 Wildcats with 14.2 points, 5.2 boards and 4.9 assists. But she asked for a release to transfer after the coaching staff that recruited her was fired.

Kansas State did not grant her that release, in large part because Athletics Director John Currie inaccurately suspected the former coaching staff of tampering. Currie has since written a letter, obtained by the Wichita Eagle, in support of Romero’s attempt to get a release, stating that “although it is unprecedented, I believe that is in the student-athlete’s best interest for the committee to reconvene to consider this new information and potentially approve her request for a conditional transfer release.”

It goes without saying that this ruling is utterly ridiculous.

Let’s ignore, for a second, how hypocritical and wrong it is for a university to be able to deny a STUDENT-athlete the ability to transfer and receive athletic aid from another university. I’m guessing we don’t see this happen too often with chemistry students or business majors.

Currie has since admitted that his suspicions about tampering were inaccurate, but the school is not willing to overturn their ruling that Romero not be granted her release because they already made a decision based off of what has been determined to be incorrect information.

What kind of sense does that make?

In what way is that ruling at all fair for Romero?

Romero can transfer to another school, but if she doesn’t receive a release from Kansas State, she will not be allowed to be on scholarship during her redshirt transfer season. As an international student, she cannot afford to pay her own way. Going to Junior College for a year is an option, but that will cost her a season of eligibility and will be detrimental to what is a very promising hoops career.

This nonsense has simply gone on for too long. Kansas State should be ashamed of what they are doing to Romero.