Clemson star Mia Moore's NCAA eligibility waiver denied. Shawn Poppie plans appeal
CLEMSON — Clemson women’s basketball coach Shawn Poppie announced that the NCAA denied star guard Mia Moore‘s waiver for a sixth year of eligibility.
“Mia, unfortunately, got denied this week,” Poppie said June 17 at a media availability. “We waited however many days to hear that news.”
Poppie said Clemson is in the process of putting an appeal together.
Moore’s case, which was submitted in March, is based on her redshirt freshman season in 2022-23 at Mississippi State. She played just 10 minutes across four games while battling an injury that sidelined her for the rest of the season.
The guidelines the NCAA usually follows when considering whether to grant a medical redshirt are based on both how often the athlete played and when their final game was before being sidelined for the year. Typically, the player can’t have participated in more than 30% of the games in that season and the injury that rules them out has to happen within the first half of a season.
Mississippi State played 33 games that season, making the halfway point at game No. 16. However, Moore played her final game that season on Jan. 19, 2023, which was game No. 19.
“We felt confident that we could get that back,” Poppie said. “Unfortunately, that’s not how the NCAA seen it, so we gotta take a deeper dive into an appeal.”
Moore earned All-ACC honors for Clemson last season, the first player to achieve this in Poppie’s two seasons. She led the Tigers in scoring with 13.3 points per game and assists with 4.7.
She almost lifted the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament second round after making a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Southern Cal, but the shot was waved off and no foul was called on the play.
Poppie hopes the appeal will be resolved in a timely manner.
“I just hope that it can be in a time frame that Mia can still get what’s next, and hers would be overseas,” Poppie said. “She’s already missed out on the WNBA.”
Who Clemson added in transfer portal, freshman signing class
Clemson is returning starter Rusne Augustinaite, who was one of the top 3-point shooters in the nation.
Poppie added five transfers, which ranked as the 14th-best portal class nationally. Those players are Mackenzie Nelson (Virginia Tech), Edie Clarke (Saint Mary’s), Jenna Lawrence (Arkansas), Taliyah Henderson (North Carolina) and Yakiya Milton (Southern Cal).
Nelson is the star of the class, a veteran guard who ranked second nationally in assist-turnover ratio last season and will be key to running Clemson’s offense with Moore’s status in jeopardy.
Clemson also signed four high school players: Kimora Fields, Julia Scott, Meeyah Green, and Dyarri Braddick. Fields, Scott and Green all rank inside ESPN Top 60 recruits.
Poppie is banking on these additions to help Clemson make the NCAA Tournament in two straight seasons for the first time since 2002.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at DCarter@usatodayco.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson women’s basketball, Mia Moore eligibility waiver denied by NCAA
