North Carolina WR Tez Walker denied appeal, ineligible for '23 - ESPN

North Carolina coach Mack Brown ripped the NCAA on Thursday after receiving word that receiver Tez Walker will be ineligible to play this season.

Saying the NCAA has failed Walker and his family, Brown said, «It makes no sense and it never will.»

Walker and North Carolina have spent months appealing the NCAA's initial decision to reject his waiver to play in 2023 as a two-time transfer on multiple grounds: mental health challenges he has experienced, leading to his decision to transfer closer to home; and that he never played at his first school, NC Central, because its season was canceled as a result of the pandemic.

His two previous schools, NC Central and Kent State, filed waivers in support of Walker playing this year.

His final effort at getting eligibility went before a committee of NCAA Division I representatives Thursday.

A statement from UNC HC Mack Brown on Tez Walker pic.twitter.com/ngm5jKlL20

«We're absolutely crushed to learn that Tez Walker's eligibility has been denied for this season and he won't be able to play,» Brown said. «I don't know that I've ever been more disappointed in a person, a group of people, or an institution than I am with the NCAA right now. It's clear that the NCAA is about process and it couldn't care less about the young people it's supposed to be supporting. Plain and simple, the NCAA has failed Tez and his family and I've lost all faith in its ability to lead and govern our sport.»

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said the NCAA «on eight different occasions… had the opportunity to demonstrate it can make sound and reasonable decisions in the best interest of student-athletes based on individual circumstances. Instead, the NCAA made a maddening, frustrating and