MHSAA rules Northwestern commit Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen Ineligible for 2019 season (Story)

The MHSAA ruled that Walled Lake Western 2020 WR Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen who has been committed to Northwestern University ineligible for the 2019 football season.

The MHSAA determined that since Yaseen was taking high school level classes as a homeschooled 8th grader that he only needs credits for 3 classes to be graduated from high school right now, thus making him ineligible.

That determination is added to the fact that Yaseen has only played 3 years of high school football; Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years at Walled Lake Western plus only being 17 years old, results in this being a scenario that we've never seen before.

Walled Lake Western is going through their 2nd appeals process to have arguably the #1 receiver in Michigan and one of the best in the Midwest have a senior season.

For high school sports, academics and education should have a bigger impact on the student-athletes than a small technicality, this ruling unfortunately hurts a student athlete for striving to overcome challenges in the classroom.

Northwestern cannot comment on a player until they sign a National Letter of Intent. It was Yaseen's plans to graduate early from Walled Lake Western in December, 2019 which is a common goal for high achieving student-athletes.