Texas D-II school seeks permission to talk to Bomar
Bob Davie Looks at College Football Boosters
Texas A&M-Commerce coach Scotty Conley isn't sure when, or if, former Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar will be allowed to play college football again. But Conley said Bomar has a home with the Division II Lions if he is reinstated by the NCAA.
Conley said he sent a request to Oklahoma officials on Thursday asking that Bomar be released from his scholarship with the Sooners. Under NCAA rules, Conley isn't allowed to have contact with Bomar until he is released by Oklahoma.
Conley said he has known Bomar's father, Jerry Bomar, a longtime high school football coach in Texas, for several years because Conley recruited many of Bomar's players.
"We've sent a release request to Oklahoma to ask permission to talk to him," Conley said during a telephone interview Friday. "We don't know what Rhett is going to do. We're in the dark as much as anyone."
Bomar, who was one of the country's most highly-recruited quarterbacks coming out of Grand Prairie (Texas) High and started 11 games for the Sooners last season, was dismissed from the team by coach Bob Stoops on Wednesday. The school said Bomar and sophomore offensive lineman J.D. Quinn knowingly broke NCAA rules by accepting wages from a car dealership in Norman, Okla., for work they didn't do.
Bomar and his father haven't returned messages to their cell phones.
"All we know right now is what we've seen in the paper, since we haven't been able to talk to him," Conley said. "We saw the interview he did on TV and what's been said in the paper. From what we know right now, he looks like a kid who just made a mistake."
Conley is entering his third season at Texas A&M-Commerce, a school of about 8,500 students located in Commerce, Texas, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas. The Lions were 5-5 and finished second in the North Division of the Lone Star Conference last season. They last played in the Division II playoffs in 1995.
NCAA spokesman Eric Christianson said since Bomar has been declared ineligible by the Sooners, if he transfers to play football at another NCAA institution, regardless of classification, Oklahoma or his new school would have to apply for him to be reinstated. That would probably involve repaying the $18,000 he was paid by Big Red Sports/Imports and might include a suspension from games. The NCAA could also declare him permanently ineligible.
Bomar's other options are transferring to an NAIA school -- they are not governed by NCAA rules -- or to a junior college, where he would have one season of eligibility. Since Bomar redshirted at Oklahoma in 2004, he would be eligible to enter next spring's NFL draft because he is three years removed from high school.
Mark Schlabach covers college football and men's college basketball for ESPN.com. You can contact him at schlabachma@yahoo.com.
OUt Of The Picture
News
• Bomar, Quinn must sit out year, lose year of eligibility
• Texas D-II school seeks permission to talk to Bomar
• Bomar, Quinn respond
• OU prepares report
• Stoops: Players 'knowingly' broke rules
• Oklahoma dismisses Bomar
• Thompson moves back to QB
Analysis
• Wojciechowski: Oklahoma will be OK
• Schlaback: Bomar faces tough road
• Forde: What an August mess
• Schlabach: OUt of the picture
• Feldman: Bomar leaves QB void
• Luginbill: Recruiting implications
Watch
• Bomar apologizes 
• Stoops on dismissals
• Rome Burns on OU
• Dean Blevins reacts to Bomar
• Bomar Dismissed From OU
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