The NCAA has formally denied Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris‘ request for a seventh season of collegiate eligibility on Friday. Morris plans to exhaust all options, according to On3’s Pete Nakos, but this decision effectively ends Morris’ college career.
Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott told reporters in early December the school had petitioned the NCAA on Morris’ behalf for an additional season of collegiate eligibility — his seventh — to potentially facilitate a return to Virginia in 2026.
“There have been some talks with Chandler of possibly (pursuing an extra year)” Elliott said on Dec. 4, according to the Daily News-Record. “That’s still to be determined. So, not going to say if that’s going to happen or not.”
Morris started 14 games for the Cavs as a sixth-year graduate senior in 2025, throwing for exactly 3,000 yards and 16 touchdowns on 64.7% (282-of-436) this past season in Charlottesville. The 25-year-old Morris landed at Virginia following an offseason transfer from North Texas, where he started 13 games while throwing for a career-high 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns on 62.9% (322-of-512) passing in 2024.
That followed a three-year stint at TCU, where Morris played 15 games across three seasons — appearing in at least four games each year in Fort Worth between 2023-21. Of course, Morris’ 2023 and 2022 seasons with the Horned Frogs were cut short due to injuries, limiting him to just four games in each of those seasons, thus qualifying for both a regular redshirt season and a medical redshirt season. That came after Morris previously appeared in five games at Oklahoma as a true freshman in 2020, thus not qualifying for a redshirt, though didn’t start a game that season.
In total, Morris has thrown for 9,207 yards and 63 touchdowns to 26 interceptions on 808-of-1,258 passing (64.2%) while appearing in 47 career games with 36 starts across six college seasons between 2020-25.
As the NCAA was weighing a decision on Morris’ eligibility case, there was speculation Morris could follow his father Chad Morris to Clemson, according to the Charlotte Observer’s Chapel Fowler. With his waiver request getting denied, Chandler Morris could appeal the decision or move on with his post-playing career, which could allow him to join his father on the Tigers’ coaching staff as a graduate assistant.
Chad Morris, 57, was recently hired as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, a position he previously held between 2011-14 before being hired as head coach at SMU in 2015. The Morris family has a long relationship with longtime Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, including even living next to one another a decade ago when Morris was previously on staff.