“There’s already one season essentially built in to allow for an injury,” Campbell-McGovern said. “In order to get a sixth year, you’d have to have two seasons where there have been extenuating circumstances completely out of the control of the athlete in order to get an extra year on your clock.”

Since failure to meet academic criteria established by the athlete’s school is not outside of an individual’s control, Cremarosa’s request will likely be rejected by staff at the NCAA office, Campbell-McGovern said, unless he and his representatives from Harvard can establish a compelling reason why he ought to be extended the exception.

“I feel that I was punished and already served my time for my academic mistake,” Cremarosa said. “This serious injury that I sustained is something I believe merits a red-shirt year.”

So while Harvard’s compliance officers attempt to uncover such a compelling reason based on precedent, Cremarosa has taken his message directly to the Harvard student body and, he hopes, the individuals who will soon decide his case.

“The idea for the petition was just a way for me to get my voice and the voices of those who support me heard,” Cremarosa said. “Since the Harvard compliance people are the ones who deal with the Ivy League office on my behalf, I wanted to use the petition to show the Ivy League office how serious I am about this and how important it is to me.”

After making a plea to his housemates over the Cabot open-list, Cremarosa collected over 260 signatures through his online initiative. But after learning that the chances of success were still “slim,” he has now decided to rededicate his efforts towards gaining the support of high-level members of the College’s administration in the hopes that they will wield greater influence over those in a position to rule on his case.

“[Fry] informed me that my petition would probably not do any good unless it was signed by ‘important’ people such as the university president,” Cremarosa said. “So my revised plan is to get the signatures of these important people, like [Harvard President] Larry Summers and our athletic director, Bob Scalise.”

Still, even Summers’ backing would probably not be enough to win Cremarosa another year.

“I don’t think the NCAA is going to factor that into its decision,” Campbell-McGovern said. “It would be a competitive advantage for Harvard to allow a student to have this additional year. The fact that Harvard wants it doesn’t really matter to the NCAA.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.