Does anyone ever get tired of admitting that Tom Izzo was right? Once again, the Michigan State legend was right about another heated topic being discussed around college basketball and it shouldn’t even surprise us.
Izzo has been outspoken against pro athletes coming back to college to find some loophole in eligibility rules and, once again, he’s been proven right by multiple major conferences.
The Big Ten released a statement on Tuesday regarding eligibility, stating that the conference would be adopting a new rule to prohibit football players who have signed professional contracts, were on probation rosters, or declared for the NFL draft as an underclassman without withdrawing from maintaining eligibility at a school inside the conference.
You can read the entire statement here:
A statement from the Big Ten on student-athlete eligibility. pic.twitter.com/Hote5wYsMU
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) August 25, 2026
The conference is taking a strong stance against professional athletes attempting to work through a loophole in the system just to get another cheap year of college eligibility. That’s exactly what is going to keep Izzo around just a little longer. Eligibility of pro athletes would just be one more thing that he doesn’t have to worry about and it’s been one of his biggest gripes about the NCAA.
Obviously the above statement is just about football, but it ended with “the conference continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports” from playing.
That means that football took priority because the season is about to start, but there’s a good chance that this ruling will extend to basketball as well.
That’s going to affect a lot of teams within the conference. Not Michigan State, though.
Some fans owe Tom Izzo an apology
There were a lot of Michigan State fans that came down hard on Izzo for not entertaining the idea of Jaxon Kohler for a fifth season when a Colorado judge ruled that all 2022 class student athletes would be eligible for the upcoming season.
Those fans owe him an apology.
While Kohler was one of my favorite players during his time in East Lansing and would have undoubtedly improved the already-loaded roster, Izzo stuck to his guns. He had already awarded the final scholarship for 2026-27 to team manager Matthew Watkins in a really cool gesture that was praised by the rest of the team, so he wasn’t going to rescind that to make room in a crowded frontcourt for Kohler. Neither side would’ve been happy.
Even if he did do what fans wanted and brought Kohler back, the new Big Ten ruling would have just deflated the fanbase after they got their hopes up.
Imagine Kohler announcing his return only to have it taken away from him a week later by the Big Ten. He would have ended up at BYU regardless.
So if you were in the wrong and criticized Izzo for being a “dinosaur” and “not adapting”, apologize to your Hall of Fame head coach.
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