Forward Semi Ojeleye will finish the 2015-16 season as a redshirt, leaving him two full seasons of eligibility at SMU (photo by Pat Kleineberg).

College student-athletes face a lot of tough decisions: where to go to school, how to turn down the coaches at other schools, which academic field to pursue.

But for SMU forward Semi Ojeleye, the decision to not play was as hard as any other.

Ojeleye transferred to SMU in January 2015 from Duke, where he played for three semesters after a stellar high school career that culminated with him being named Parade Magazine’s National Player of the Year. After arriving in Dallas, per NCAA transfer rules, Ojeleye had to spend a year sitting out, practicing with his new teammates but watching the Mustangs play without him.

Ojeleye was eligible to join the SMU active roster Dec. 17 — the first day after the completion of the fall semester — when the Mustangs faced Hampton at Moody Coliseum. But that plan changed.

The Mustangs, playing the 2015-16 season under NCAA sanctions that prohibit the Ponies from playing in the postseason, have become a national headline for their torrid start. After Wednesday’s 79-55 victory at East Carolina, the 16-0 Mustangs are the nation’s last undefeated team. Teams can have as many as 13 players on scholarship and can dress no more than 15 (for road games — teams can dress more at home). The looming NCAA sanctions prompted the SMU coaches to reduce the number of scholarship players on the roster this season, so the Mustangs began the year with just 12 players on the roster. Since then, they lost guard Ben Emelogu to a preseason knee injury, freshman guard Sedrick Barefield transferred, guard Keith Frazier left the team for personal reasons and senior forward/center Markus Kennedy has played the last 10 games while nursing an ankle he sprained against Michigan. SMU has been playing lately with eight players — seven on scholarship — and saw that number go down by one in its critical game against Cincinnati when guard Sterling Brown got ejected. To say the Mustangs could use Ojeleye would be an understatement.

But a couple of months ago, the idea of sitting out the spring semester as a redshirt was presented to him, to allow him to play two full seasons, each of which would include the opportunity to play in the postseason.

“That was actually the coaches’ (idea),” Ojeleye said. “They thought maybe I should consider it around November, when the season was about to start. They said, ‘maybe you should think about sitting out. You know, you only have 20-some-odd games to play this season.’

“I thought it was crazy. I had already sat out (the spring semester) already, and I didn’t know if I could go through with it. Emotionally, I felt like, ‘no way,’ but when I thought about it for a little bit, I thought, ‘this makes sense.’ I think I had to sell myself on the idea that I could sit out again and not lose focus.”

Regardless of talent — which Ojeleye clearly has in abundance — almost no college athletes get where they are without a large measure of competitiveness. Ojeleye is no exception, so suffice to say, he doesn’t exactly enjoy spending an extra semester on the SMU bench, dressed in a suit and cheering on his undermanned team. But there is a chance Ojeleye could graduate with a degree in psychology this year, meaning that by sitting out for the rest of this year as a redshirt, he could play two full seasons with the possibility of playing in the postseason and walk out of SMU with a Master’s degree.

Academic opportunities notwithstanding, Ojeleye — a former National Honor Society member in high school whose list of scholarship offers coming out of high school also included another elite academic school, Stanford — admitted that he doesn’t necessarily enjoy being his role as spectator and cheerleader, although he does take solace in the fact that his teammates understand that sitting out probably represents the best option for Ojeleye on the court and in the classroom.

“It sucks,” he said, laughing. “But there’s not a whole lot you can do, but support your teammates and try to get better in practice. Knowing that they still support you, too, they know what you’re going through, that’s really helpful, too.”

So Ojeleye spends his days cheering on his teammates during games and practicing with them during the week … and said the fact that he almost certainly won’t play a single minute this season does not mean he endures any less rigorous workouts or fewer demands from head coach Larry Brown than his teammates who are suiting up for the games.

“That’s one of the great things,” he said. “If you come into practice, you would think I was playing if you didn’t know (otherwise). Coach Brown and the (staff) work really hard to make sure they’re getting everybody better, from the scout team all the way to Nic (Moore) and Markus (Kennedy) and JT (Jordan Tolbert). So it feels good to know you’re still part of the team, even when you know you’re not going to suit up every night.”

Ojeleye admits that the Mustangs’ remarkable season has made sitting out more difficult. Ojeleye said that if the Ponies were hovering somewhere around the .500 mark, for instance, it might be easier for him to bide his time while waiting for his chance next season.

“I’m not going to lie — definitely,” he said when asked if it is difficult to stay committed to his decision. “I wish I was out there, I wish I was playing, I wish I was part of it. But, you know, I’m not the guy that’s playing, but I’m still trying to help my teammates. So that’s all I can do, and I’m still part of the team, one way or another.

“I don’t think there’s any time to think about regret. There are times I wish it went differently, but I made the decision and I have to deal with it.”

While he has longed to join his teammates on the floor and has wanted to be a part of the Mustangs’ remarkable season as more than a practice player, he and the coaches have not considered reversing the decision, even as the number of players on the SMU bench has dwindled.

“No, there wasn’t any discussion” about lifting his redshirt, Ojeleye said. “I mean, I thought about it. We were down to six, seven guys, with ‘Wilf’ (walk-on Jonathan Wilfong) and then with (former practice players) Jake (Brudish) and David (Nelson) dressing, but I made the decision, and I felt like it would be best if I stuck to it. By then, each game that went by, I had lost another game, so I didn’t want to ‘activate myself,’ or whatever, and lose the rest of the season.

So Ojeleye continues to wait. By the time he joins the SMU lineup in November, he will be a month shy of his 22nd birthday and will have spent three seasons learning from two of the greatest coaches in college basketball history in Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and SMU’s Brown. Replacing Moore, Kennedy and Tolbert will be an enormous challenge for Brown and his staff, but adding a class of recruits — and finally adding Ojeleye — should help as the Mustangs try to return to the NCAA tournament.