College Athletics Angst, Part Next

Outrage about the college sports landscape has pivoted toward a 21-year-old Nigerian basketball player and the institution of higher learning in Waco, Texas in the latest edition of “Somebody Oughta Do Something.” It’s made for some fine rants from a handful of the sport’s leading voices that contain amusingly deceptive arguments as well as shadow confirmation that they really miss the good old days when they called the shots. 

Current indigestion revolves around James Nnaji and his mid-season addition to the Baylor University roster. Nnaji is a 7-foot center who was the No. 31 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Though he played for the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA Summer League that year, he never signed a regular contract and did not remain in the U.S. He instead has played professionally in Europe for FC Barcelona for the past five seasons. 

Because he had never appeared in an NBA game and had not played college ball before 2023, he had a path to college eligibility because he is within a five-year window for what would have been his high school graduation date. The NCAA informed Baylor on Christmas eve that Nnaji would be eligible. 

The Nnaji situation, coupled with the NCAA’s decision to grant college eligibility to participants in the NBA G League, its developmental circuit for players who chose not to go to college, has further roiled the membership. Fulminators about this episode include Tom Izzo, Dan Hurley, John Calipari and Matt Painter. Even Nick Saban felt the need for a little finger wagging. 

Izzo, the Michigan State legend, in Spartan Illustrated likened college eligibility for G Leaguers to bringing back former MSU stars Magic Johnson and Gary Harris to play for his teams. When he learned of Nnaji's eligibility, he said, “If that’s what we’re going through, shame on the NCAA. Shame on the coaches too, but shame on the NCAA. Because coaches are going to do what they got to do I guess, but the NCAA is the one. ... Those people on those committees that are making those decisions to allow something so ridiculous and not think of the kid. Everybody talks about me thinking about my program as selfish, no. Get that straight for all of you, I’m thinking of what is best for my son if he was in that position. And I just don’t agree with it.” 

Hurley was unaware that eligibility for Nnaji was even possible. “It’s a frustrating game to play when you don’t know the rules and rules are being made up as you go and there’s no communication and there’s no leadership,” he said in The Athletic. “So I think college basketball needs a commissioner. A Roger Goodell. A David Stern. Somebody that’s gonna make decisions and start making moves that are in the best interest of college basketball, not just having coaches and players do what’s in the best interest of them.” 

Following a recent game, Calipari launched into a seven-minute harangue that began with the Nnaji decision and splashed outward. “You can’t be 30,” he said in part of his rant. “You’ve got five years. Clock is ticking. If you go pro, I don’t care what country you’re from. You leave your name in, you cannot play college basketball. If you transfer midseason, you can’t play. You gotta sit out. How about we just do that stuff? We can do it without having Congress and the Senate getting 60 votes. We can do that. Let them sue us on that stuff. … Does anybody care what this is doing for 17- and 18-year-old American kids? Do you know what this opportunity has done for them and their families? There aren’t going to be any (recruited) high school kids. Who other than dumb people like me are going to recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it and their family life changes that I’m going to keep doing it.” 

Hoo buddy, where to start. Granting a path to college for kids who played minor league ball for subsistence-level wages or for a 21-year-old who’s never played college ball isn’t within the same ZIP code of bringing back older, seasoned NBA stars. The NCAA’s admittedly fluctuating standards are a worthy target, but there’s nothing illegal or unethical about recruiting foreign players. Izzo has had foreign players, as have dozens of coaches. He’s also successfully mined the transfer portal in recent years, poaching gifted players from smaller programs, so his veneer of forthrightness is a mite selective. 

A college hoops commissioner is a fine concept if a true steward can be put in place. But someone might inform Hurley that people such as Goodell and Stern work for professional team owners, and their jobs are at least as much about making money for everyone and putting out fires than the actual good of the game. And if someone is installed as the Sultan of Hoops, who exactly sets the agenda and defines what’s best for the game? As for the selfless Reverend Calipari, he of the vacated Final Four appearances with both Massachusetts and Memphis and Godfather of the One-and-Done approach to recruiting and program building at Kentucky, are we to believe that he wouldn’t take a talented French or Serbian kid or a 20-year-old who’s spent a year or two in the G League? 

The idea that college hoops will suddenly be flooded with foreign players and G Leaguers at the expense of American high school prospects is absurd. There are 361 Division I programs and well over 1,000 NCAA men's teams at all levels. Maybe the 18-year-old American kid who Calipari is so concerned about goes to Arkansas-Little Rock rather than Arkansas, UNC Greensboro instead of UNC. Even Baylor coach Scott Drew admitted that he wasn’t a fan of mid-season additions, but injuries caused him to re-think his stance. 

Nnaji was on their radar because Baylor’s general manager knows Nnaji’s agent, who also represented one of their former stars. “We (coaches) don't create the rules, and if we agree by them or not, I equate it to the speed limit,” Drew told CBS Sports. “You go through a construction zone, it changes. You get on the highway, it changes. Right now, the NCAA has speed limits, and it changes. I don't blame the NCAA because a lot of it's about what they feel they can win in the courtroom. To me, until we get to collective bargaining, there's not going to be a solution. Until that time, my job is the coach of our program and we needed to add a player at semester break because we've had two season-ending injuries to two of our biggest players and had a third player out. If you're coaching a team, aren't you going to add the best player you can add that fits your program? That's what we did.” 

Drew’s remarks about the NCAA and the courtroom and collective bargaining are most pertinent. Courts have cuffed around the NCAA for years over attempts to limit athlete compensation and freedom of movement, all under the flimsy mantel of amateurism. Now, NIL money and rampant player movement have injected further instability to what was already a challenge in the best of times. The Nnaji situation isn’t even the first instance of an in-season addition who has foreign professional experience. Oklahoma, BYU, Dayton and Washington have all done so. The difference is that none of the others were NBA draft picks. One might wonder how much of the mass whinging is an increasingly tiresome yearn for the way it used to be or because Drew’s peers didn’t take advantage of the rules and land a kid with NBA potential. Sure, it’s unusual and uncharted territory, a new menu item on the buffet table of joy.