Why Florida State’s Darrell Jackson, North Carolina’s Tez Walker will be eligible for Playoff, bowl games but not ACC title game

Despite both players being ruled ineligible to play this season by the NCAA due to being multi-time undergraduate transfers, Florida State and North Carolina will ultimately be able to get Darrell Jackson and Tez Walker on the field at some point this year after all.

It just won’t be for another for another three months.

Both Jackson and Walker will be eligible to play in the postseason. However, that’s limited to just College Football Playoff or bowl games and doesn’t include the ACC championship game should FSU and/or North Carolina make it.

The explanation for all that? In spite of the rulings and denied appeals from the NCAA regarding their eligibility for this season, both players will be eligible to play once they complete two semesters in residence at their schools, a source tells On3. The semesters at both FSU and North Carolina end the week after the ACC championship game, which is set to be played Dec. 2.

Nevertheless, it’s at least somewhat a positive for Jackson and Walker. And in the case of Jackson for example, it could also provide a postseason lift for one of the nation’s top national championship contenders.

Jackson, who started his college career at Maryland before spending last year at Miami, started all 12 games for the Hurricanes last season. The 6-foot-5, 334-pound Jackson finished the year with 27 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. That came after he made 22 tackles as a freshman at Maryland.

“He’s been working,” FSU head coach Mike Norvell said of Jackson. “I’ve been really proud of him. I think he’s getting good work. He’s approaching every day the way we want him to approach it. He’s getting better and he’s continuing to push and he’s trying to go into every week as if he was playing, which that can be hard. It’s hard for a young man to know that they’re not going to be able to get on the field on Saturday but still to get their mindset and approach that this is still the most important rep of my life. I think he’s doing that.”

As for Walker, he was in position to be North Carolina’s top receiver, was a preseason first-team All-ACC selection and was viewed by NFL scouts as a potential top four round draft pick prior to being ruled ineligible.

Walker, who began his college career at NC Central, transferred to Kent State after NC Central’s 2020 season was canceled due to COVID. He then transferred to North Carolina this offseason after earning first-team All-MAC recognition last year at Kent State.

The decision to transfer to UNC came in part to the North Carolina native wanting to be closer to his sick grandmother. Nevertheless, despite that and other stuff like UNC arguing that Walker’s year at NC Central shouldn’t be counted since the team’s season was canceled, the NCAA still ruled Walker ineligible and then denied multiple appeals.

“We’re absolutely crushed to learn that Tez Walker’s eligibility has been denied for this season and he won’t be able to play,” Brown said earlier this month. “I don’t know that I’ve ever been more disappointed in a person, a group of people, or an institution than I am with the NCAA right now. It’s clear that the NCAA is about process and it couldn’t care less about the young people it’s supposed to be supporting. Plain and simple, the NCAA has failed Tez and his family and I’ve lost all faith in its ability to lead and govern our sport.”

However, just like with FSU and Jackson, UNC will now at least be able to get Walker on the field this postseason. Like the Seminoles, the Tar Heels are 4-0 through the first four weeks of the season. Florida State was ranked No. 5 in the most recent AP poll. North Carolina was ranked 15th.