For months, Erin Abbey kept her phone close, waiting on the call that never seemed to come. The Senior Associate Athletics Director for Compliance Services at South Carolina had spent the last eight months working tirelessly to get running back Rahsul Faison cleared by the NCAA for one final season.
Finally, around 4 p.m. Monday, while teaching her Business Law class at USC, Abbey’s phone rang. It was the NCAA.
“Generally, when the NCAA has a waiver decision of any sort of magnitude, they will call you,” Abbey recalled. “So I stepped out to take the call, and I was just so excited for that yes — that the waiver was approved. I thanked the folks at the NCAA for all of their hard work and dedication. Then I hung up and had my list of folks I needed to call.”
At the top of that list was head coach Shane Beamer, who had been just as eager for an answer.
“I do remember saying, ‘This is probably the most memorable call I’ve had in my compliance career. Rahsul’s waiver is approved. He’s eligible. He’s good to go,’” Abbey said.
Beamer was thrilled. He immediately FaceTimed Faison to deliver the news himself.
“(Faison) was at home already in the afternoon, so I FaceTimed him and told him, and that was a pretty cool moment I won’t forget,” Beamer said. “Just seeing the joy in his face — all he kept saying was, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,’ because he’s so appreciative of the opportunity.”
A Long Road to Yes
The approval marked the end of a long, exhausting process. Abbey explained that waiver requests involve multiple steps: identifying which NCAA category the waiver falls into, compiling an institutional statement, a student-athlete statement, and gathering documents from previous schools.
The first waiver, submitted in February, was denied. That forced Abbey’s team to regroup and find another approach.
South Carolina also had to collect records from Faison’s winding college career. He grayshirted at Marshall in 2019, took online classes at Lackawanna College in 2020, then moved to Snow College, where he played sparingly until his second year. At Utah State, he found his stride, rushing for more than 1,800 yards and 13 touchdowns over two seasons.
“It was mostly, you know, you’re just not getting the information, but then you’ve got to piece it together and formulate the best possible … assertion to the NCAA as to why this student-athlete is warranted relief,” Abbey said. “So the document collection process did take some time.”
Abbey called Faison’s case the biggest waiver file her office has ever handled, with “many, many, many documents.”
Doubt and Determination
The long wait wasn’t easy. Abbey admitted there were days when it felt like “Groundhog Day,” with no updates and growing doubt. But she reminded herself that the work wasn’t about her — it was about Faison.
“This is a man they found in Rahsul that could make an impact. We want to support him,” Abbey said. “Having to ask the student-athlete for statements and having him rehash the hardships he endured early in his career is never pleasant. But he had a smile on his face and was super collaborative. That makes it more rewarding when you have those frustrating days.”
Faison, for his part, couldn’t be more thankful.
“She played a major role,” he said of Abbey. “Once they took things over in compliance, I feel like things started moving a lot quicker. I’m just grateful and thankful that they were able to help me out and be there for me.”
Back to Business
When Abbey walked into her office the next morning, she finally got to check Faison’s name off the waiver board. The relief was brief — three more potential cases awaited her. Still, she couldn’t resist sharing the good news with her students.
“I did teach yesterday, and I was like, ‘How many people follow our football team?’ And they raised their hands. And then I’m like, ‘How many people saw that running back got eligible?’ Yeah, so I was like, ‘Well, that was the call I had to take.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, that was you? That’s awesome!’”
At long last, Faison’s wait is over — and thanks to Abbey and her team, he’ll get the chance to finish his career on the field in garnet and black.
