Michigan State Basketball: NCAA inconsistent in Joey Hauser ruling

The NCAA’s complete and total inconsistency reared its ugly head in the ruling of Michigan State basketball star Joey Hauser’s ineligibility.

Welcome to the NCAA where up is down, left is right and where coins are flipped to rule players eligible. It’s the completely inconsistent beast that runs college athletics, fair or not.

The news that Spartan fans, coaches, players, and most importantly Joey Hauser, have been waiting months for has finally come out and it went against everyone’s wishes.

So after months of waiver requests, appeals, a phone interview with the NCAA and a “strong case” on Hauser’s part, he was denied immediate eligibility. Taking this long to make a decision after giving him an interview over the phone just doesn’t make sense. Why deny a kid the right to play after making him wait this long just to have a phone conversation?

It doesn’t make sense, and it just goes to show that the NCAA has its priorities out of whack.

On the football field, players who transfer to bigger schools are granted immediately eligibility almost constantly. At Michigan State? Jayden Reed may not have had a strong case, but can you say the same about Justin Fields or Shea Patterson?

Sticking to basketball, James Wiseman had two rulings from the NCAA over the past couple of weeks and it took about 4-5 months to hear one about Hauser.

Consistency is lacking when it comes to these rulings, and Izzo is fed up. He resigned from his position on the NABC board of directors because of the inconsistency and lack of fairness when it comes to the transfers gaining immediate eligibility everywhere.

If Hauser had a good case like Izzo said he did, why did it take this long for the NCAA to tell him no? Why wouldn’t they just say he didn’t have a case and why even wait months to give him a phone interview? To me, this makes no sense and it’s a bad look for the NCAA.

Between this news and making a college kid to donate $11,000 to a charity of his choice, the NCAA continues to make baffling decisions. Hauser will be back with a vengeance in 2020.