Just Utterly Shocking News: A Stupid NCAA Rule Might Fuck Over A Bunch Of College Hoops Players By Forcing Them To Leave Or Be Ineligible

Oh well just consider this my shocked face. The NCAA doing something incredibly stupid but saying they are helping the kids but really it's essentially just so they can control even more stuff? I've never heard of such a thing! The NCAA is always so pure and honest in what they do. Remember how they gave all spring sports athletes this past year an extra year of eligibility - well those that were in that last year of it at least. That's the good karma they need for the next five years. 

The biggest thing here is that the NCAA made what appeared to be a good decision a couple years ago. They were going to let the players work with athletes. That's a step in the right direction. It just makes all the sense in the world. That's precisely why the NCAA decided to announce they were putting in stipulations for agents. It was essentially known as the Rich Paul Rule 

And you might ask well there has to be a good reason the NCAA would do this. Well friend of the program Sam Vecenie shared the e-mail from the NCAA back then

The Internet basically forced the NCAA to adjust some of the rule, dropping the Bachelor's Degree part: 

So fast forward to today and where are we? Well according to Jeff Goodman there are only 23 agents that have been certified by the NCAA

Yeah, that's not nearly enough to cover the majority of players who are trying to get feedback and determine what to do for their, you know, career and life. Seems like a pretty important thing to care about. You'd think the NCAA who screams that they care about student-athletes would do just that. Let them work with whoever they want and make decisions. No, instead they are forced to work with much smaller firms that could completely jeopardize not only their professional career but also their college career. 

As Givony says, there is a fear of rules violations. Remember there are so many dumb, small rules that can lead to a suspension. Yoeli Childs of BYU was suspended 9 games because of a clerical mistake. A clerical mistake! It's not even just about this year. Givony walks us through some of that problem: 

"This is not a time to be adding players to your client list; it's a time to consolidate," one NCAA-certified agent told ESPN. "I'll take a no-brainer first-round pick if he falls into my lap, but anything beyond that I'd have to think long and hard about this year. Normally I'd be interested in taking a flier on a kid testing the waters in hopes of developing a relationship for next year, but there's very little that I can actually do to help someone right now with the amount of uncertainty surrounding the professional basketball world."

Then there's from Vecenie: 

Ultimately it comes down to the NCAA just completely fucking up yet again. Stop telling everyone you care about the student-athletes. You care about the bottom line. You care about money and protecting yourselves. Just let these guys work with whoever. Why do we pretend to care about someone working with an agent? That doesn't change anything that happens on the court. It's the same thing I say with letting guys profit off of name, image and likeness. Who gives a shit? If someone gets paid $10,000, guess what? They still have to go make plays on the court or the field. 10k doesn't change that. It doesn't prevent a bad game.