ZipForNow

https://www.bracketbustershoops.com/p/entering-year-one-of-the-dustin-ford

I met their AD at a MAC academic conference. They seem to have their act together.

You need to actually believe. Bowden believed. I remember when they nearly beat Michigan! One Pohl completion away!

My read is that he was ruled eligible in court and the NCAA succeeded is obtaining a stay of the ruling in court. Affected individuals can pursue legal remedy individually. What I don’t know is whether Poff is pursuing that.

From BroBible: "[...]Well, a group of outgoing seniors filed a federal lawsuit in Colorado to receive their fifth year of eligibility. They were granted a blanket waiver that would allow them to play in the upcoming season. Poffenbarger was considered eligible under that ruling. He got a redshirt year and four years of eligibility. This would be his “fifth” (really sixth) season. It seemed like he was going to play for Akron during the 2026 college football season until Aug 21, when the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA a stay. The stay halted the original judge’s order, reversed the initial eligibility ruling and closed the door for outgoing seniors to return for a fifth season. They are out of eligibility. It is assumed that Poffenbarger is not eligible as a result of the stay. However, individual athletes are able to seek eligibility through outside legal filings beyond the blanket waiver that was originally applied to all athletes.[...]"

Is it possible that something unfolded after he transferred due to various judicial rulings so that what looked like a pro forma waiver of an eligibility restriction was off the table?

ODU had its 2020 season canceled due to COVID.

I, too, hope you are wrong! But more to the point, how is it that nobody sleuthed this all the way through from the get-go? It seems like such an obvious thing to double- and triple-check.

Further digging (again, using Google Gemini so it may be erroneous): 2021 (Old Dominion): Did not play. (Redshirt Year) 2022 (Albany): Played full season. (Season 1 of competition used) 2023 (Albany): Played full season. (Season 2 of competition used) 2024 & 2025 Combined (Miami & UNT): Because he redshirted early in his career, he could not register a second "redshirt year." Instead, the NCAA simply tracks his four active seasons of competition. Because his on-field game appearances across 2024 and 2025 did not exceed the threshold of an individual active season, they collectively count as just Season 3 of his competition allotment. 2026 (Akron): This serves as Season 4 of his on-field competition, landing precisely in the fifth year of his calendar clock (2021–2026).

I am not arguing with you, but this is what I was able to turn up: 2020: Old Dominion canceled its season due to Covid. 2021: ODU Redshirt (freshman) year 2022: Albany Season 1 used 2023: Albany Season 2 used 2024: Miami Season 3 used 2025: North Texas medical waiver obtained (kind of like redshirting) 2026: Akron Season 4 to be used Did he not obtain a medical waiver at UNT? Otherwise, it seems he is eligible. Does anyone have any inside information that alters this?

It was well-known that it was his sixth year, which is highly unusual but apparently he was cleared. What has changed?

Anyone hearing anything regarding Amani as an NBA prospect?

I was poking around using AI (Gemini) to inquire why he might be ineligible, trying out different hypotheses as to why, and nothing came up. Specifically, why would he be ineligible (if in fact he is ineligible)?

Where is the evidence here? Did someone see something, talk to someone, regarding Poff’s eligibility? It was such huge news when he was recruited. It had to have been carefully vetted, right?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49531211/akron-zips-football-offensive-coordinator-game-promo