Last Chance U season two star Chauncey Rivers will have to wait to continue his career at Mississippi State. An appeal he filed with the NCAA to retain his academic eligibility has been denied, coach Dan Mullen confirmed after the Bulldogs’ first game, so Rivers (whose rap song was featured on the show) will sit this season.
Last Chance U’s Chauncey Rivers is academically ineligible at Mississippi State
He won’t play for the Bulldogs during 2017.
One of the consistent themes in the Netflix series is that of eligibility concerns. The show’s literal premise through the first two seasons is the fact that nearly every player featured had been kicked out of one school or another for various reasons.
Fan favorite academic adviser Brittany Wagner’s job is to make sure East Mississippi Community College players get and stay academically eligible so they can continue with their careers.
Mullen referenced the issue being on EMCC’s end.
“Right now, the NCAA denied his appeal so he’s going to have to academic redshirt at this point,” said Mullen after Saturday’s game. “It was a situation from his junior college deal that they had set up for him.”
This is, of course, not Rivers’ first bout with ineligibility concerns. He was kicked off the team at Georgia before landing at EMCC.
For now at Mississippi State, it’s next man up without Rivers.
Rivers will redshirt this season and still have two years of eligibility when the 2018 season begins. But the Bulldog coaching staff made a concerted effort in the 2017 recruiting cycle to stock up on JUCO players in an attempt to fill gaps in a porous defense from 2016.
With Rivers being ruled ineligible, the Bulldogs will need to have the next man up mentality. The most likely player to fill the hole will be redshirt sophomore Fletcher Adams.
Both Adams and Rivers were 4 star prospects in the 2015 signing class. Rivers signed originally with Georgia but enrolled at East Mississippi Community College due to eligibility issues coming out of high school. Adams redshirted his freshman season and still has two years of eligibility left after the 2017 season.
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