Arkansas Suspends Stefan Welsh Indefintely

As the remainder of the SEC crouches, poised to attack the national scene in a big way in 2009-10, the tiny wheels that the Razorback train was running on have begun to fall off, and in a massive way.

After suffering four defections this summer, coach John Pelphrey today suspended stand-out senior guard Stefan Welsh.

While there is very little solid information regarding the situation out there, the commonly-accepted rumor is that the suspension is drug-related and won’t include just offseason time.

More substantiated rumors claim that Welsh dropped out of a summer class he needed to qualify for the fall, so he will not be returning to the team until at least January, where any game suspensions would then go into play.

Rumor is he will not be released from the team for this, mainly due to Arkansas’ absolutely abysmal APR rating.

Arkansas will be lucky not to lose a scholarship following this season due to the huge losses over this summer.

Welsh is a huge piece of the Arkansas puzzle, as he contributed 11.5 points per game last year and looked to be one of just two scholarship seniors on the team in 2009-10. Whatever amount of time the ‘Backs play without Welsh will be embarassing—the squad will be down to five scholarship players plus five freshmen, only one of whom has four stars or more.

Things are not looking good in Fayetteville at the moment, and I’d be shocked if Pelphrey has a job come next April.