When news of Jordan Clarkson’s decision to transfer from the University of Tulsa was made public it was known the University of Texas would be a contender for the San Antonio native’s future on-court services. Clarkson, who will be a junior next season, reportedly submitted a list of colleges he would like permission to transfer to – all of which were non-Conference USA schools (which is Tulsa’s basketball conference). The list of schools included Colorado, Vanderbilt, TCU, Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas, Missouri and Arizona, but University of Tulsa Athletic Director Ross Parmley has reportedly approved only 3 of the schools on the list. Only Colorado, TCU and Vanderbilt were approved, leaving just about everyone scratching their heads, including Clarkson and his family.
As sports fans have been swelled with the news of Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan blocking redshirt freshman Jarrodd Uthoff’s transfer from any Big Ten school, Clarkson’s situation seems even more perplexing considering not one of the schools of Clarkson’s interest are in C-USA. Clarkson will be forced to sit out a year after the transfer, which is punishment enough. Throw in the fact that Tulsa has brought in an entirely new coaching staff under new head coach Danny Manning and new administration under new Athletic Director Ross Parmley and no wonder Clarkson wants to transfer.
The college transfer rules are what they are but schools should have a pretty good reason why they will not approve a scholarship offer from another school. There is still time for the list of “denied” schools to be approved, or at least some of them, so Longhorn fans will have to sit and play the waiting game. Clarkson started every game for the Golden Hurricanes and averaged 16.5 points per game.
