The Tennessee Volunteers will have arguably their best defender on the field in Atlanta after all.
The NCAA, per multiple outlets, has reduced Arion Carter‘s suspension from two games down to one on Monday. That leaves Carter free to play in the Vols’ biggest non-conference game of the year at Georgia Tech on Sept. 12.
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Tennessee athletic director issued a statement on Twitter (X) on Monday.
Carter’s suspension for accepting a $427 flight during the pre-draft process led to the NCAA handing him a three-game suspension (even though he decided in January to return to school and promptly paid the cost of the flight back). That was reduced to two on appeal, and now, it’s been dropped to one.
Frankly, it’s ridiculous that Carter is being suspended at all, given actual NFL players are getting permission from courts to return to college for a fifth and final season (subject to votes being made by Power Four conferences to ban such players from returning, but still). It was something that Josh Heupel rightfully called “bullshit” during his press conference earlier this month.
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But now, Carter will only have to watch from the sideline next Saturday against Furman, who Tennessee would be able to beat handily with even just one of their backup linebackers on the field.
It’s still to some degree a matter of principal, as White mentioned and every Vol fan around the water cooler has complained about for weeks. But it’s still a situation that the Vols won’t ultimately get burned in, and Carter will still be able to play in 11 regular season games at minimum.
Doesn’t feel perfect, but feels a whole lot better than it did yesterday.
