VILLANOVA, Pa. - Villanova freshman Matthew Hodge has been denied his initial eligibility waiver to attain qualifier status by the NCAA, Villanova was informed earlier this week. On Wednesday, the university submitted an appeal for reconsideration to the NCAA Division I Initial-Eligibility Waiver Committee made up of individuals from across NCAA membership institutions. That committee is expected to render its final and binding decision next Wednesday, November 13.
If the appeal is denied, Hodge will not be permitted to compete this season. He will receive financial aid and be allowed to practice and travel with the team, but this will be essentially a required redshirt year.
Hodge arrived in the United States from Belgium in Aigust 2022, and enrolled at St. Rose High School in New Jersey, graduating from there in June 2024. During his two seasons of high school basketball, Saint Rose, determined his eligibility and academic standing.
However, the NCAA Eligibility Center reviewed his transcripts from both his time in Belgium and the United States and ruled that Hodge was deficient in meeting its qualifier requirements. Under NCAA rule, student athletes must complete 10 core courses, seven of which must be in English, math and science, before the start of their fourth year of high school. Hodge spent four years in high school in Belgium, taking English, French, Ethics and a general studies class that encompassed subjects such as math, science and social studies. St. Rose considered all of his classes from Belgium and upon review, deemed Hodge a high school junior upon his arrival in New Jersey.
The NCAA initially deemed Hodge a non-qualifier, but in conjunction with the Indianapolis-based law firm, Church Church Hittle and Antrim, Villanova was able to file a waiver, and resubmitted for consideration other coursework, including the ethics class that Hodge took in Belgium. However, that left Hodge well short of the 10/7 standard applied by the NCAA and the national governing body's staff determined that he would be an academic redshirt and ineligible for competition.
Villanova filed an appeal to that decision, arguing mitigating circumstances that included:
- Hodge's ability to pass advanced math and science courses in New Jersey (including Algebra II and biology) that proved he had received the educational foundation necessary in Belgium to be a successful high school student in the United States. That he could be successful in such advanced classes also refutes the general principle of the eligibility denial – that Hodge is incapable of handling collegiate work
- Hodge has no say in determining his standing in the U.S. high school system, and that the New Jersey school system deemed his Belgium coursework and grades good enough to make him a junior in good standing.
- COVID severely disrupted Hodge's studies in Belgium, as schools there shut down for a long period of time and later went to online courses.
Listed as examples of mitigating factors on the NCAA initial-eligIbility waiver directive are personal hardship, mis advisement, education-impacting disability and international academic track. The NCAA, however, denied that appeal, leaving the committee's decision Hodge's only recourse.
