Suspended receiver Michael Harrison has not asked for release, plans to stay at OSU

Michael Harrison, who left the Oklahoma State football program before spring practice, remained in school this semester and has not asked for a release from the university.

“I do not have such a request,” OSU associate athletic director for compliance Kevin Fite said in an email Thursday. “It is my understanding he plans to stay at OSU.”

When asked if/when Harrison had been or would be taken off his athletic scholarship, Fite declined to disclose that information. I would guess Harrison remained on scholarship for spring 2012 since he left the team mid-semester.

Harrison, who would be a junior wide receiver, was suspended by the NCAA for the 2012 season for reasons that OSU coach Mike Gundy has not made public. It’s my understanding that the suspension would trickle down to any level of the NCAA (FCS, Division II, Division III), which would severely limit Harrison’s options for a transfer.

Gundy revealed in a pre-spring conversation in early March that Harrison had decided to leave the program following the suspension.

“The NCAA suspended him,” Gundy said then. “I never suspended him, and then he chose to not play football. He made that choice himself. My recommendation to him was to finish school (this semester), because that’s what you have to do. You can’t go anywhere at this particular time…and then if he chooses to (transfer), that’s his call.

“I don’t know what he wants to do. I just know that he’s decided he does not want to play football anymore.”

I have heard rumors that Harrison may want to try to come back to the football team at some point, but not from anybody I trust. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened during Gundy’s tenure as head coach. Former linebacker Jeremy Nethon was dismissed from the football program by Gundy in 2005 because of poor academics, but he returned as a walk-on in 2006, earned his scholarship back and finished his Cowboy career with 132 tackles.