Days after professing undying loyalty to the Red Wolves, the Sun Belt Basketball Player of the Year announced his intentions to transfer from Arkansas State, hurling A-State fans spiraling into a bottomless abyss of pure despair.

The fanbase could not be dealt a crueler blow.

“I wanted to let the Red Wolves fans know that I wanted to stay loyal. That I am a Red Wolf for life,” Omier had said just one week ago on the A-State podcast Second to None. In that same interview, he noted that he was being approach “every day” by other programs to bail on Arkansas State. He said he “tuned them out.”

But there was no tuning out the siren call of big budget programs. While it’s not clear who will be in the mix for Omier, SEC and Big 12 names bubble from rumor’s boiling cauldron. Following Omier out the door, Keyon Wesley (grad transfer) and the promising but seldom used Mario Fantina. Everything sucks.

All in all, it’s a bad look for everyone. Omier looks disingenuous. Mike Balado looks the fool. Tom Bowen and the athletic department look weak, and the fans look like idiots with their jaws unhinged and chins resting on the floor. Oh yeah, and me for being sucker enough to think Omier’s commitment to Arkansas State was real.

This, placed on top of All-American wide receiver Corey Rucker’s abandonment of the football program, is nearly too much for downtrodden A-State fans to bear.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sun Belt Athletics and Arkansas State