Virginia joined South Carolina over the weekend as Power Five football schools realizing a personnel benefit from a lower-level program’s loss.
Two weeks ago, the Colonial Athletic Association announced that it was canceling its 2020 college football season because of the coronavirus pandemic. One member of that FCS conference is Towson. Coincidentally or not, one standout member of the Tigers, Shane Simpson, took to Twitter last week to announce that he has entered his name into the NCAA transfer database.
On that same social media service Sunday, the running back confirmed that he has committed to the Virginia football team. Simpson had his transfer to-do list down to Virginia and Texas.
Cavalier Nation 🔶⚔️🔷‼️
— 1️⃣3️⃣ (@Shane_Simpson18) August 2, 2020
WAHOO NATION LETS RIDE 🤝@UVAFootball pic.twitter.com/8RSthp849O
As Simpson was a fifth-year senior in 2019, it appears he has been granted a sixth season of eligibility. Or, is fairly confident he will receive one.
Simpson would likely be eligible for that sixth season as he missed all but four games of his true freshman season in 2015 because of injury, then missed all but the first three games last season because of a serious knee injury.
In 2018, Simpson earned first-team All-American honors. He finished second in all of FCS with 171.5 all-purpose yards per game, totaling 2,058 yards on the season. That same season, the Pennsylvania product was the CAA’s Special Teams Player of the Year and earned three different all-conference honors: first-team at running back, second-team as a kick returner and third-team as a punt returner.
Simpson would be eligible to play immediately in 2020 at the FBS level.
