NORFOLK, Va. — University of Virginia football players whose college eligibility was set to expire after this season will be granted an extra year by the NCAA, the Daily Progress of Charlottesville reported on Wednesday.
UVA athletic director Carla Williams confirmed the decision to the newspaper, adding that the university requested an extra year after the shooting death of three football players led to the cancellation of the Cavaliers’ final two games.
The Cavaliers were 3-7 in coach Tony Elliott’s first season. UVA was set to finish the season against Coastal Carolina at home and on the road against rival Virginia Tech.
Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were killed Nov. 13 after a field trip to Washington, D.C. Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former UVA football walk-on, faces three counts of second-degree murder and other charges in the shootings, which set off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown before Jones was apprehended.
The school held a public memorial on Nov. 19 — the day of the scheduled game against Coastal Carolina — at John Paul Jones Arena to remember Chandler, Davis and Perry. Davis was a wide receiver from Dorchester, S.C.; Chandler was a wide receiver from Huntersville, N.C., who transferred to Virginia from Wisconsin; Perry was a linebacker from Miami.
The ACC announced the following week the game against Virginia Tech had also been canceled.
