led to his suspension? I thought that was a given.

To be a full time student at ND you need to take 12 hours a semester. Therefore you can be on the slow plan if you want to be. Hardly anyone does that, but it is possible.

- No text -

extra semester?

he wants to move to for football players (and which, therefore, presumably does not exist yet).

And to be abundantly clear, I absolutely favor the changes that Kelly described. Ishaq is where I think he should be right now, but I suspect he is probably behind where the University expects him to be, based upon what I understand to be the current structure for our football players.

http://irish.nbcsports.com/2015/05/20/after-high-profile-academic-mistakes-notre-dame-w...

Wouldn't this assume that they're at least ENROLLED in 15 for some of the semesters they're on campus?

So many questions, so few answers.

Prior to the Frozen Five incident, Williams was enrolled at ND in (1) Spring 2011, (2) Fall 2011, (3) Spring 2012, (4) Fall 2012, (5) Spring 2013, (6) Fall 2013, and (7) Spring 2014.

Even if he took only 12 credit hours per semester, that would have meant obtaining 84 credits by virtue of Fall and Spring semesters. Let's say he only took 9 credits that early-enrolling semester. That would put him at 81 credits by virtue of the traditional semesters.

But add to that the summer sessions he took: (1) Summer 2011, (2) Summer 2012, (3) Summer 2013, and (4) Summer 2014. Let's assume he obtained no credits for 2014. At 6 credits per summer, that's 18 additional credits, which puts him up to 99 credits.

If he truly needs 27 credits to graduate, and the marketing major he's in requires 126, then this seems to add up.

Assuming 12 credit hours per semester and 3 over the summer he would have been at 96 total before he we told to leave ND. That is (30) short of meeting the requirements for a degree.

Year 0: 12 Hours (Spring) + 3 Hours(Summer) = 15 Hours
Year 1: 12 Hours (Fall) + 12 Hours (Spring) + 3 Hours(Summer) = 27 Hours
Year 2: 12 Hours (Fall) + 12 Hours (Spring) + 3 Hours(Summer) = 27 Hours
Year 3: 12 Hours (Fall) + 12 Hours (Spring) + 3 Hours(Summer) = 27 Hours

Total: 96 Hours (30 Hours Short of graduating)
Therefore Williams took an extra (3) hours at some point along the way.

27 isn't a lot. Perfectly normal for someone who is managing his courseload in order to attempt to maximize his time. With that said, we all expect ND student athletes to be perfect cyborgs who never make mistakes, get straight A's and can speak 7 languages. So yea, I guess he is a loaf...smh.

- No text -

Assuming he 1) took 12 hours in his EE semester, 2) took 5 hours per summer for the 4 summers on campus (after the EE semester, after frosh/soph/junior years), and 3) took 12 hours each other semester on campus

That's basically the minimum he could take and still be a full-time student, as required by the terms of the scholarship. I suppose its possible he took fewer than 5 hours a summer, but I imagine the university requires at least 1 class while those guys are on campus, and everyone I knew who stayed over the summer took at least 2.

If we assume this to be true, he'd be at 104 hours. Arts and Letters requires 120 to graduate. So if he's A&L, he's off the pace and we have to assume he's failed a class or three along the way.

I'm definitely rooting for the kid and it would be nice to have him on the football field. But I don't agree that this is a slam-dunk decision to bring him back. Kudos to admissions for giving him another chance, but everything about his academic profile seems to scream "at risk."

Also - and this doesn't really have much to do with his credit hours - but if I'm Brian Kelly, I don't see how I can RUNNOFT anyone on the roster to give Ishaq a scholarship.

Most 5th years have been enrolled at ND for 8 semesters and will be working on their 9th and 10th semesters.

Ishaq has only taken 7 semesters of classes at ND right?

The fact that he missed 2 semesters and wasn't enrolled in classes anywhere, makes his situation seem pretty normal to me.

5th year athletes are athletes that are using 4 years of athletic eligibility over a 5 year time period. Most times, an athlete may be hurt (and will take a 5th year), but was enrolled in classes throughout that entire 5 year period. Or maybe they've never been hurt, but are graduating and starting grad school work. Ishaq is a 3rd, less common option. He's a student that was off for a year because of his mistake, but wasn't in ANY school during his time off, right?

Doesn't seem like anything's wrong to me. We've never heard anything about him having academic problems (other than the incident that got him in trouble). He and his family just decided he needs to work and earn some cash (I think that was what was reported). Nothing wrong with that imo.

behind -- or that he had to forfeit quite a few credits. Our regular enrollee football players are tracked to graduate after first semester of senior year -- and many of them do. Ishaq should have had a head start on those guys. 27 left seems like a lot.

...with the notion that a 5th year student shouldn't still be working towards an undergrad degree. Must we forget all of the prop 48 players that were brought on in the 80's that we all loved? Did they all get an undergrad degree in 4 years?

Additionally, not sure I agree that he needed to have been working towards his degree during his time away from school. There is too much unknown in the situation to be critical of it.

In the end, in his 4th year on campus he'll work towards a degree with a normal workload, either as a member of the football team or not. I have zero issue.

as to whether or not he's going to be able to play, he probably hasn't been pursuing montage-level training these past 10 months

(4) classes for (12) credit hours for a light in-season schedule and then a full load of (5) classes for (15) credit hours during the spring would have had him graduate. That is not uncommon for athletes at Notre Dame at all.

And so did Russell, but he was taking classes at a community college. Presumably some of those can be put towards his ND degree. Ishaq didn't take those steps, which isn't necessarily his fault because it sounds like there wasn't much in the way of communication between he and his family and anyone affiliated with ND.

A 5th year football player shouldn't have to be a full-time student for his last 2 semesters to get an undergrad degree. I'd love to have him be on the team, but I'm not surprised that there might be some serious issues getting him eligible, both from an NCAA and ND standpoint.

27 credits is not a lot. It's (4) (3)-hour classes a semester. "Normal" students take between 15 - 18 credit hours a semester. That being said, 9 credit hours in a semester make you a part-time student. I am pretty sure that part-time students are not eligible for full scholarship benefits (and they may not be able to participate in football activities even.

Therefore, the idea of (3) - (6) credit hours over the summer, (12) credit hours in the fall and then (9-12) credit hours in the spring/after that to finish his degree makes a ton of sense.

- No text -

A fifth year who needs 27 hours to graduate shouldn't be playing college football.

I'd say that's quite a bit. Most guys we see granted 5th years are working on graduate studies.

Suppose he takes 3 hrs over the summer, then he has two light semesters remaining of 12 hours (4 classes) each

If you consider that last year was a total wash + a few dropped classes for the scandal. He can take 6 credits this summer and then regular loads in the fall & spring and still graduate in the 4.5 years he was actually a student.

That Ishaq needs 27 (!) credits to graduate. I wonder if the questions about his NCAA eligibility to play football have anything to do with the fact that he may not have made sufficient progress towards completion of a degree?

that's pretty great, all things considered.

- No text -

I do not know what this means for his future on the football field.

Irish Illustrated ‏@PeteSampson_ 4m4 minutes ago
Ishaq Williams has been formally re-admitted to Notre Dame by the Committee on Readmission.