Finch granted NCAA waiver.

The Hoosier Scoop reports something quite foreign to IU fans recently: good news from the NCAA. Safety Jerimy Finch has been granted a waiver, based on extenuating family circumstances, from the requirement that he sit out a season after his transfer from Florida to IU. For those who aren't familiar, Finch is a former star at Warren Central who was the nation's top safety prospect as a high school senior. Initially, he committed to Michigan, but sometime in fall 2006 switched his commitment to IU. On the eve of signing day, Florida suddenly has a scholarship available, and Finch signed with the Gators. He played in Florida's first three games in 2007, but after making his first career interception against arch-rival Tennessee, he broke his leg in the same game and missed the rest of the season. As I've mentioned a million times, I'm not a recruiting fanatic, but off the top of my head I would guess that Finch is the most highly rated prospect to enroll at IU since Bo Barzilauskas in the early 1990s. Hopefully, this arrangement will be better.

I don't know much about the circumstances affecting Finch's family, and I held out no hope that he would play before 2009. This is a nice gift on the eve of the season, and should help IU with the defensive backfield, the only unit of IU's defense that lost many players because of graduation.