A month after unexpectedly ending her collegiate athletic career, former Oregon track star Jasmine Todd revealed that the reason for her departure was due to an academic issue, according to flotrack.org.
Todd was enrolled in an online class during the 2015-2016 indoor season that required her work to be submitted from Thursday to Saturday. However, as one of the pillars of Oregon’s traveling squad, Todd realized that she would not be able to submit her work as she would be competing almost every weekend over the term.
She worked out an agreement with her professor to allow her to submit her work whenever she could. What she did not realize was that their agreement was “against university policy.” When Todd went to submit her last assignment for the class, the professor accepted her work and gave her a passing grade. But because their agreement wasn’t recognized by the university, her grade was considered invalid, leaving her short credits and ineligible for competition.
This news didn’t reach her until eight weeks after she thought she had completed the course. Head coach Robert Johnson had to pull her off the starting line at the NCAA prelims in Lawrence, Kansas to deliver the news.
Todd earned 15 points for Oregon at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championship when she placed second in the long jump and fourth in the 100-meter dash.
She is tied for the school record in the 100 with a personal-best of 10.92 seconds.
Todd is now looking ahead towards the Olympic Team Trials, taking place in Eugene in early July.
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