Report: Arizona’s Jacory Croskey-Merritt out vs. Kansas State amid eligibility probe

The No. 20 Arizona Wildcats are expected to be without running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt when they face the No. 14 Kansas State Wildcats on Friday.

CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports Croskey-Merritt is facing eligibility issues that date back to a redshirt season in 2019 that is now in question.

It’s his sixth season in college, though he would be eligible for a fifth year because of the COVID-19 eligibility extension and a sixth via a traditional redshirt.

Croskey-Merritt played in eight games for Alabama State in 2019, according to statistics showing on ESPN. But Zenitz reports that Alabama State claims he played in only four “then switched numbers with another running back and that it was that other running back playing in Croskey-Merritt’s number in those other four games.”

Zenitz reports new information came about after Croskey-Merritt rushed for 106 yards in the season-opener against New Mexico, leading the NCAA to investigate further.

The running back didn’t appear against Northern Arizona last Saturday.

Quali Conley, a San Jose State transfer, rushed for 17 carries and 112 yards as the No. 1 back against NAU and sits at 202 yards on 27 carries (7.5 yards per carry) through two games.

Freshman Kedrick Reescano had six carries for 71 yards (11.8 yards per carry) as the backup against the Lumberjacks. He accounted for most of that with a 56-yard touchdown run.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s Alabama State stats are different each place you look

There are more statistical inconsistencies spanning Croskey-Merritt’s time at Alabama State that show up between ESPN’s statistics and Croskey-Merritt’s player biography pages for New Mexico’s and Arizona’s official websites.

While all three say he rushed for 1,190 yards at New Mexico, they each have different figures for how many rushing yards Croskey-Merritt produced at Alabama State in total.

ESPN’s stats say he rushed for 2,443 yards before playing for the Wildcats, 1,253 of which were at Alabama State.

Only 186 yards were accounted for in the 2019 season in question. That adds up in the game log section of eight games played.

New Mexico’s official roster biography page says he rushed for 1,164 yards at Alabama State, making his total before playing for Arizona 2,354.

And Arizona’s official website says he rushed for 2,609 yards between NMU and Alabama State, making the latter portion 1,445.

The discrepancies make sense if Alabama State’s practices of recording statistics were inaccurate beyond the small sample size of the 2019 season.

If the record-keeping presented that murky picture, the NCAA is likely trying to piece together game film or finding other evidence of how much Croskey-Merritt played to reach a verdict.

Might be out there already. Down the Jacory Croskey-Merritt rabbit hole: Bad/different info from Alabama State probably the cause:

Arizona player bio math = 1,445 total rush yards at Alabama State

NMU's bio page says 1,253 rush yards

ESPN's stats has 1,164 yards (8 games tho) pic.twitter.com/OgYArkJFQV

— Kevin Zimmerman (@KZimmermanAZ) September 13, 2024

Follow @kzimmermanaz