Daisha SImmons Seton Hall Eligibility Case: Alabama Agrees To Sign Waiver

It's almost official: Daisha Simmons will most likely play basketball for Seton Hall University this season. Simmons's former team, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, finally announced Tuesday, Oct. 7, that it would consider signing the waiver she needs that would allow her to play for the Pirates immediately without having to sit out a year.

To recap: Simmons has already received her undergraduate degree from Alabama, but she still has a year of eligibility left with the NCAA. So when she realized that the Alabama master's program wouldn't be an option for her, she decided to apply to Seton Hall's instead — and she got in.

Enrolling at Seton Hall would allow her to continue her schooling and play basketball for one more year before and, most importantly, going to work the following year. By getting a job, she would be able to give her ailing mother a break as her brother continues to battle End Stage Renal Disease.

It sounded like a great plan until Alabama refused to sign the waiver that would trump the NCAA's requirement for Simmons to have to sit out for a year for transferring from one Division I school to another. Instead, she was being forced to ultimately delay her sick mother's exit from the workforce for an entire year.

And that's when the media stepped in, followed by fans all across social media and then Simmons's attorney.

In his "World's Worst" segment last week, Keith Olbermann declared, "Athletic director Bill Battle and women's basketball coach Kristy Curry at the University of Alabama ... appear to be avenging themselves against a former player — just for the hell of it."

He then added, "University of Alabama's women's basketball program is punishing an athlete and her sick brother and her sick mother, just to show her who's boss."

On Monday, Oct. 8, Simmons's attorney threatened legal action, and then the next day Alabama backtracked and reversed its decision.

"This afternoon, the University of Alabama contacted the NCAA to inform them that the university supports Daisha Simmons's request for a waiver from the NCAA allowing her to be eligible to play basketball at Seton Hall in 2014-15," the school said in its statement.