College Basketball In Crosshairs of Pro-Athlete NCAA Eligibility Chaos

For the first time in college sports, top conferences have now implemented different rules about which athletes are eligible to play on their teams. 

Following a bombshell ruling allowing several players who signed NFL contracts to return to college, the Big Ten adopted bans on professional football players returning to college. The Big SEC and ACC chose to put in place a similar ban for football—but also added basketball to the list. The Big 12 implemented a policy for all sports.

Even more than football, basketball will feel the biggest impact of these new policies. In some cases, they ban players who may have gotten eligibility under NCAA rules. In others, they’ve caused confusion about the complex international professional basketball rules less relevant in football. And looming over it all is the flood of lawsuits and court decisions.

“I think everyone believes things have got to change,” one power conference administrator told Front Office Sports. “But I think until things do change, everyone goes week by week with this. Like, ‘What’s gonna happen this week?’”

Pro Eligibility Yo-Yo

In men’s college basketball, the eligibility landscape has already been marred with confusion for the past two years, from the NCAA allowing some players to return from the G League but banning others who have signed NBA contracts, including two-way deals. The NCAA has faced challenges to those rules, however, as in the case of Charles Bediako, who sued to return to Alabama after a stint in the G League that included an NBA two-way contract. It was able to fight off that particular challenge. 

The chaos was only amplified this summer in the wake of the NCAA’s “age-based” eligibility policy, granting athletes five years to play five seasons, up from four. Players nationwide who started college in 2022 but exhausted four seasons of eligibility filed lawsuits to force the NCAA to include them in that policy. (One of those cases included NFL players—two of whom, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, signed deals to return to LSU.)

Now, for Big 12, ACC, and SEC players, conference-level restrictions add to the sport’s murky eligibility landscape. As of Thursday afternoon, these were the only conferences that have publicly announced policies applying to basketball professional experience.

First, the leagues ban players who entered the NBA or WNBA drafts but did not properly withdraw. In men’s basketball, underclassmen can declare for the draft, but must decide to opt out if they want to return to school. 

Players are automatically entered once they exhausted their college eligibility, however; the SEC policy allows players from the 2022 freshman class whose names were automatically entered into the draft, and who have now won an injunction for a fifth year, to return. (For women’s basketball, players must be four years removed from high school graduation or 22 years old—meaning most won’t enter the draft before exhausting their college eligibility anyway.)

They also bar the return of players who have signed NBA and WNBA contracts, or who have appeared on these rosters. But they take a stricter stance than NCAA rules: Men’s players can’t have participated in the G League, either. The Big 12 bans players who signed any “professional league” contract, while the SEC specifically stipulates G League and NBA contracts. The ACC’s policy notes that NBA Summer League contracts mean Exhibit 10, two-way, or “any agreement providing for compensation beyond expenses and per diem.”

And then there’s the question of international players—teams are increasingly more likely to recruit athletes who played professionally overseas. The Big 12 has barred all professional leagues—but will make an exception for international athletes who played in the pros overseas before coming to college in the first place. Players can’t, however, leave college and go pro overseas and then come back.

What’s more, the patchwork of conference rules has created an uneven set of rules. For example, players who left college and signed G League contracts can’t return to play men’s college basketball in the SEC, Big 12, and ACC; but they could return to other leagues that haven’t yet passed a similar rule. 

However, other leagues are rushing to follow the lead of these conferences: The Big East was set to meet Thursday to discuss basketball options, FOS confirmed. 

“Optimism” and Uncertainty

Multiple sources across conferences said they supported the decision for leagues to levy specific rules preventing professional participation. One source associated with a power conference school described it as a feeling of “relief;” the administrator said it provided a sense of “optimism.”

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be complications with enforcement. For example, it could be hard to police the question about whether players have signed contracts, given that it’s often difficult to determine whether players have actually put pen to paper on G League, Exhibit 10, or other deals versus agreeing to them verbally.

Then, there’s also whether the league-wide rules will hold up in court. The problem: If courts prohibit the NCAA from enforcing specific eligibility rules, could these rulings also, by proxy, apply to conferences?

That’s the argument being made in multiple cases right now, including that of Kentucky transfer Mark Mitchell, whose attorneys filed an amended complaint Thursday arguing the SEC can’t enforce eligibility rules enjoined by a court order stopping the NCAA.

Sources say they are all waiting to see how the league will respond to LSU rostering its football players as well as monitoring the case of former St. John’s standout RJ Luis Jr., who won an injunction to play at LSU this season despite going through the NBA Draft process and signing with multiple NBA teams. 

In addition to asking the court to clarify that the injunction applies to the SEC as well as the NCAA, LSU itself could sue the SEC once it receives a penalty. Or, the SEC could sue LSU in advance to get a judge to establish it can legally enforce conference penalties against the school (like the Big 12 did in the case of Brendan Sorsby).

“I think there’s a chance that each of the four Power 4 conferences have their ‘Sorsby’ moments,” the power conference administrator said. “But I certainly think everyone’s looking to see how the SEC navigates, executes, and implements this.”