Things are getting a little ridiculous in the NCAA these days. Pros are returning to college after spending years in the G-League, and Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo was right all along.
The Hall of Fame head coach has been vocal regarding his disdain for the direction in which college basketball is headed. Izzo has been doing things the right way for as long as I can remember, and that’s sometimes led to seasons ending a little earlier than anticipated.
Izzo has always done things by the book, but that book is ever-changing.
The transfer portal era and NIL really changed things for him, but he’s adjusted and now feels like he can compete with anyone in that facet of the offseason.
Unfortunately, he’s not a fan of the newest obstacle that has entered the picture. Pro basketball players are being granted extra college eligibility and have been allowed to return, on a case-by-case basis. There are several pros out there who have tried to return to college because they argue that they haven’t signed NBA contracts.
The NCAA gave in with Baylor’s James Nnaji, and now it’s being forced to allow Charles Bediako to return to college basketball after a recent court ruling granted temporary eligibility to the three-year G-League vet.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Michigan State and Izzo recruited Bediako heavily back in the 2022 class before the five-star center picked Alabama. The Spartans were high on his list.
Surely Izzo isn’t going to be a fan of this.
College basketball, as we know it, is on life support
College basketball fans have watched in horror as the sport has conformed to a new set of rules and standards that have not quite been up to par with what has been expected.
The NIL and transfer portal era has already shifted the NCAA into more of a pro-type organization, and now that actual professional basketball players are being allowed to return, it’s going to kill the sport that has already been placed on life support.
Baylor’s mid-season addition of Nnaji was bad enough, but now Alabama is getting to bring back a former five-star who entered the 2023 NBA Draft and didn’t get picked, and then spent the past three years in the G-League. How is that fair to the rest of the nation’s teams that are following the rules and not trying to bring in pros in the middle of the season? It’s not.
Izzo was right again. He’s been right about everything.