ESPN: UCLA Is On Golson's Wish List

When the news broke last week that Everett Golson has decided to transfer from Notre Dame, I speculated as to whether UCLA would try to land the Fighting Irish quarterback.

This morning, ESPN is reporting that UCLA is on a list of ten schools Golson submitted to the Notre Dame compliance office as his potential destinations. According to the ESPN report, Notre Dame has not blocked Golson from transferring to any of the schools on the list he submitted.

Other schools on the list apparently include Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida State.

The article mentions that ESPN's Joe Schad says that Golson visited Florida State on Monday.

Golson may have problems transferring to an SEC school because SEC bylaws prohibit schools from accepting transfers with less than two years of eligibility under certain circumstances. SEC bylaw 14.1.15.1(d) says:

The student-athlete has not been subject to official university or athletics department disciplinary action at any time during enrollment at any previous collegiate institution (excluding limited discipline applied by a sports team).

To transfer to an SEC school, the conference would have to grant a waiver to the school to which Golson is transferring and the SEC doesn't grant waivers to this rule very easily. Just last season, the Conference refused to give Tennessee a waiver for basketball player Eric McKnight. McKnight was a graduate transfer from Florida Gulf Coast University. He eventually landed at Long Beach State instead.

Last week, I offered some reasons why Golson may be interested in being a Bruin.

But that isn't to say that Golson will have an easy time being admitted to UCLA either. UCLA's admissions department denied admission to basketball player Jon Octeus last year and he was also a graduate transfer.

It will come down to three factors: how satisfied the coaches are with the QBs after Spring Practice, if Golson can get into a graduate program at UCLA and if Golson wants to be a Bruin.

Those are the things that we won't know until Golson announces where he will end up, but the fact that UCLA is apparently on Golson's list at least makes this something for us to keep an eye on.

UPDATE (11:48am): ESPN's Kevin Gemmell is reporting the following:

A source close to UCLA football told ESPN.com that the Bruins coaching staff has had zero contact with outgoing Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson and none is planned.

Go Bruins!!!