Pittsburgh Athletic Department Statement Regarding Release of Cameron Johnson

Posted Jun 8, 2017
The University of Pittsburgh Athletic Department released the following statement regarding the release of graduate transfer Cameron Johnson to play immediately at UNC. Prior to Johnson's release, the Pitt Athletic Department stated that their policy was that graduate transfers moving to an ACC school must sit out a year. However, the ACC and NCAA allow all graduate transfers to play immediately.

Pittsburgh Athletic Department Statement:

This past week, the NCAA issued an official interpretation of the rules regarding graduate transfers. Under this interpretation, a graduate student who is not granted a full release from his undergraduate institution is permanently ineligible, unable to receive athletics aid and unable to serve a year of residence.

This interpretation presents unduly restrictive eligibility stipulations on graduate transfers that do not exist with other transfer students.

The general transfer rules are less restrictive and would allow a student-athlete the opportunity to immediately receive athletics aid, continue his graduate education for two years and still have the opportunity to compete after serving a year in residence. Therefore, given the NCAA interpretation, we have decided to take a less restrictive approach and grant Cameron Johnson the opportunity to transfer to another ACC school with immediate eligibility for competition.

We were proud to have Cameron as a student-athlete and are now proud to have him as a graduate of our institution. We wish him the very best as he pursues his graduate degree.