Ben Mauk Is The College Football Version of Brett Favre

What is with QB’s and the complete inability to let go?

The never ending saga of Ben Mauk’s career as a college QB continues to convulse on the operating table amid furious shocks from the defribillator pads in the form of appeals and now a lawsuit.  Mauk is suing the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility on the basis that he has been injured so many times he deserves it.

Mauk came back from career-threatening injuries to lead Cincinnati last year to a No. 17 ranking in the final poll. He passed for 31 touchdowns and 3,121 yards even though his right arm and shoulder were still in pain.

Mauk broke the arm and separated the shoulder in Wake Forest’s season opener in 2006, then transferred to Cincinnati.

He appealed to the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility because of the injuries, but was turned down. A second appeal claiming he redshirted his freshman year at Wake Forest in part because of different injuries also was rejected.

Mauk then went to the NCAA’s reinstatement committee, which ruled last week there wasn’t enough medical documentation to support his claim that he missed his freshman year because of injury. His lawsuit says it’s not his fault that files weren’t maintained.

The complete story of Mauk’s career begins at Wake Forest in 2003 where he was initially redshirted as a freshman.  Since Jim Grobe seems to redshirt anything that has a Demon Deacon uniform on and moves on his field during practice for the first time this was pretty much par for the course. Mauk played in 2004 and 2005 but had his 2006 season cut short after one game with the always gruesome broken arm and sepearated shoulder.  Since he had been at Wake four years at this point he actually graduated and took advantage of a new exception handed down by the NCAA overlords that a graduating student may jump to another DI school without sitting out the traditional one year.  So Mauk decided to head off to Cincinnati to become their starting QB and as a redshirt senior led the Bearcats to a top 20 ranking. Mauk has such a fabulous time that he would like very much to do it again and has appealed three times to the NCAA for reinstatement and a sixth year.  So far the NCAA has not bitten so Mauk is taking them to court to coerce something pretty much no one I am aware of ever gets.

The NCAA rule, as it was told to me back in August of 1993 at UNC Greensboro, is you have five years to play four.  The clock starts the first day of practice and when your fifth season ends you are done.  Mauk had his clock started in 2003 but was redshirted the first season which he claims was due to injury but the NCAA is unwilling to buy this because of a lack of documentation i.e. Mauk was redshirted because that is what happens to most freshman QBs and there is probably nothing to support the injury claim.

So why am I spending time writing about this other than the fact nothing is really happening in UNC football practice?  Mainly because Bobby Frasor’s situation is similar to this.  Frasor is asking for another season based on missed games across two seasons.  The major difference is Frasor is looking for a fifth year which still keeps him within the “four in five” rule.  Mauk is going for the even half dozen and that seems a bit much.  Yes, it sucked he had his arms nearly ripped off his body in 2006 during the first game and he effectively ended up with two non-playing years out of the five alloted.  I think it is pressing the issue to be 23 years old, a full year plus removed from graduation and seeking a sixth season of college football.  This is the equivalent of living with your parents when you should be getting a job and moving out of the house especially because your brother is waiting to get your room much the same way Dustin Gauza would like to start at QB for the Bearcats.

Give it up Ben, you had your career now let someone else have theirs.

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