I was listening to the SVPod on Dec. 16 when I initially heard about Toni Bilic joining Illinois next semester. I thought it was a joke, or at least something the NCAA would quickly respond to, so it would immediately be shut down.
Then silence ensued.
Who's Next?
It was announced late Christmas Eve morning that NBA player James Nnaji will leave the league and commit to Baylor.
In the span of eight days, two pro basketball players left their teams to join a college program in the middle of a season.
What is the NCAA doing?
The NCAA has been a punching bag for years with their style of governing, but what is the point of the organization if they won't make guardrails at all for collegiate athletics.
This eerily feels like the 2016 bowl season for you basketball fans that also enjoy some college football. Leonard Fournette opted out of the Citrus Bowl against Louisville and in the next few days Christian McCaffrey opted out of the Sun Bowl.
Those were two subtle announcements that did not impact the 2016 bowl season much, but those decisions had a ripple effect on bowl season in the years to come.
The NCAA did not respond to those bowl opt-outs in anyway and skipping bowl games is a lot more common knowadays.
What They are Saying?
Scott Van Pelt in that podcast episode says collegiate athletics is the wild west and the NCAA seems scared that they will be taken to court and lose.
I agree with SVP. If the NCAA does not create rules that can be held up and applied to each sport, then what are they doing and what is their purpose?
Makes me Sad
The sport that I grew up loving is starting to become unnoticeable.
I'm not talking about NIL or the transfer portal either. I'm referring to the greediness of the NCAA to not respond to a player conflict, but want to expand March Madness to 72 or 76. For what? So they can make more money? So they can satisfy the gluttony of the power conference?
In the end, it isn't the chaos that hurts the most, it is the silence. No penalties, no appeals, no standards left to break. Just athletes playing in a system that had forgotten how to protect them. The NCAA remains, not as a regulator, but as a logo, a brand, a reminder that rules don’t die when they’re broken, they die when no one enforces them.