Ben Mauk's last shot at playing his fourth year of college football comes this afternoon when he gets a chance to speak with the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee just hours before the Bearcats open the 2008 football season at Nippert Stadium.

Mauk, who played his first year at UC last season after transferring from Wake Forest without penalty under a short-lived NCAA rule allowing graduates to transfer, will be able to plead his case personally for the first time in months of appealing to the NCAA for another year of eligibility.

"All he's asking for is the ability to play a fourth year, he never asked to get hurt," said Mauk's attorney, Kevin L. Murphy.

A decision by the committee is expected to be made following the conference call with Mauk, Murphy said.

On Wednesday, Mauk was denied reinstatement a separate committee from the NCAA. An official from the NCAA called Murphy Monday night to inform him the request had been denied, but Tuesday was told that was erroneous. Wednesday, the same message -- this time official - was delivered to Murphy and Mauk.

Mauk was injured and redshirted as a true freshman at Wake Forest in 2003. He has applied to the NCAA that he was redshirted only because of his injury, which is the crux of his appeal. The NCAA has said there is no documentation from Wake Forest saying Mauk would have played had he not been injured.

Mauk started for the Demon Deacons in 2004 and 2005 before being injured in the first game of the 2006 season.

"He's not asking for anything other people haven't been granted," Murphy said. "There have been many, many instances where people have had six years to get four years on the field. They have plenty of case precedent of doing this."

Mauk transferred to UC for the 2007 season and led the Bearcats to their first 10-win season since 1951 and their first-ever final ranking. Mauk threw for 3,121 yards and 31 touchdowns for the Bearcats last season.

Murphy said Mauk could still go forward with his case against the NCAA, but NCAA regulations which could call for the forfeit of any game Mauk played in, monetary fines, loss of scholarships or bowls for the school or other penalties if Mauk participated with the Bearcats and courts ruled against him, make it too risky for UC to play Mauk.

The Bearcats open the season tonight at Nippert Stadium against Eastern Kentucky with senior Dustin Grutza as the starting quarterback. On Sept. 6, the Bearcats travel to Norman, Okla., to face the No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners.