Tsirtsis Ruled Eligible

Jason Tsirtsis, (2014 NCAA Champion, 2x Big Ten champ, 2x All-American) has been ruled eligible to compete next season for Arizona State. 

Many may consider this a surprising announcement. Tsirtsis announced he had left the University of Northwestern this spring. When he enrolled at Arizona State they seemed to be hoping he would be granted a year of eligibility next season. Tsirtsis stated in an interview that after some personal hardships that he was no longer on track to graduate academically. 

While transfers are certainly not rare, Tsirtsis did use a redshirt coming out of high school. This transfer could make it tough as failing academically is likely not among the preferred reasons of transfer. None the less, Tsirtsis will now be wearing the Sun Devils uniform boosting a team that features several highly touted young talents. 

Tsirtsis' career has gone in reverse over the past three seasons. It started with Big Ten & NCAA titles as a freshman. Another Big Ten title and then a 3rd place finish with a 38-2 record was nothing to sneeze at as a sophomore. However, last year was another step back with a 15-9 record, 4th in the Big Ten, and then failing to place at the NCAA's with a loss in the round of 16. 

While it's tough to predict what he'll do this year, I think most will rank him in the 6-10 range at 149. This will probably bring Arizona State up as a team in to the 12-15 range to start next season. It's exciting times in Tempe for Zeke Jones and company, especially for a team that just scored 9.5 points at the 2016 NCAA's.