would have had to sit out a year, which did not happen. Utah did the legwork in Tonga and got him fully qualified, no waiver involved. Again, the limited NQ exception allows someone to practice but not play.

And again, the point about the mission or not is irrelevant. BYU was bringing him in as a NQ, and didn’t think anyone else could, whether pre-mission or post-mission. My guess is that BYU didn’t really put in much effort in Tonga because they wanted him to remain a NQ where only BYU would take him.