as much as I like to make fun of the NCAA I can’t really blame them for all this mess lately. They have tried to enforce “rules” only to have them smacked down by courts.
Courts with rooting interest in affected college teams.
These are all chickens finally coming home to roost.
This offseason and year of chaos was entirely of the NCAA’s making, and they knew it would happen. I’m starting to believe it was intentional to cause exactly what we are seeing to try and drum up support to get themselves legislation granting the fabled anti-trust exception they want.
As soon as 5 to play 5 started to be rumored, every single person asked what they’d do with the most recent class. Everyone knew if they didn’t allow them back, there would be a summer and fall of lawsuits, injunctions, TROs, appeals: at all 50 states and federally. It was 100% predictable this exact situation would happen with guys who thought they were done and testing NBA/NFL waters then wanting to return when it became apparent they may have another year.
The NCAA could have easily prevented this by announcing in May that 5 for 5 was happening and all class of 2022 could return under that new rule. It may have harmed incoming freshmen and returning players looking for playing time, but it would just be going to the new normal a year earlier and would have avoided all this madness. The only explanation for why they didn’t do that is the cynical view that they wanted as much chaos as possible to try and increase their power legislatively. I don’t give the NCAA any benefit of benevolence.