The NCAA has released a new guidance to college basketball programs that could affect dozens of teams this upcoming season, but it may actually work in Michigan State’s favor.
A new guidance was released which refers to the rules and frameworks that the NCAA will use to enforce on high school and international recruits. It’s basically an outline of what these student-athletes need to do in order to play in the NCAA.
On Thursday, the NCAA released a guidance that doesn’t have a definitive enforcement date nor does it say whether it would affect players who are currently in college or just incoming international players.
It states that international players who played overseas will now have a tougher time gaining NCAA eligibility, especially if they played a form of professional basketball.
I have great respect for Jonathan’s work dating back to my time at the NBA, but I respectfully disagree with his characterization of the NCAA’s approach to international players.
— Garth Glissman (@GarthGlissman) May 22, 2026
The NCAA does not seek to exclude all international players. Rather, the NCAA seeks to implement… https://t.co/dsGtvoYNSd
This new rules is getting some mixed reviews, but the majority of people are happy that we may see less professional basketball players at the collegiate level. This doesn’t mean that all international prospects are going to be banned from the NCAA, but rather it’d likely mean that there would be a major crackdown on adding overseas pros.
Coaches like Will Wade are taking advantage of the current system which has clearly been broken and his roster could take a massive hit with several international pros committed to the Tigers.
Michigan State, on the other hand, wouldn’t be negatively affected by this new guidance and Tom Izzo will finally get one guideline to work in his favor.
Izzo’s always built his team organically through high school recruiting with a sprinkle of the transfer portal with very little motion overseas. He wouldn’t even consider adding a pro from Europe which means that this new guidance doesn’t apply to him and he’s losing no production over it.
New guidance would be great for college basketball
It should go without saying that this new guidance which has no start date nor has it laid out how strict it’s going to be. No one knows if it’ll be a blanket guidance or a case-by-case one, but either way, it’s good for college basketball.
We’re not going to see anymore 23-year-old international prospects who have played a year or two of EuroLeague ball committing to NCAA teams with 1-2 years of eligibility left.
That’s the first real win for the NCAA in quite some time.
Izzo has to be thrilled with this rule and if it were up to him, it would be retroactively enforced but not everything can work out perfectly.
This isn’t the NCAA saying no more international players, but rather enforcing the “no pros” policy that should have been in place long ago. Now it’s time for the NCAA to be way stricter with G-League players and former drafted players who are coming back to college.
It’s time to enforce the “if you stay in the draft, your college eligibility is done” rule again.
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