Another Watershed Moment for NCAA Basketball

The Baylor Bears added seven foot tall center James Nnaji to their roster on Tuesday, Dec. 24 and, despite Nnaji’s status as a 2023 NBA draft pick of the Detroit Pistons, the NCAA granted him four years of college eligibility. He’ll also have the ability to start playing immediately.

While he spent several seasons playing professionally in Europe, Nnaji never played a game in the NBA or its minor league affiliate, the G-League. That likely influenced the NCAA’s ruling in his and Baylor’s favor.

The day before Nnaji signed with Baylor, Oklahoma brought in 23-year-old Russian center Kirill Elatontsev; the NCAA cleared him, granting one final season of eligibility. Villanova head coach Kevin Willard joked about Elatontsev’s addition following the Wildcats’ win over Seton Hall and, even with his characteristic sarcasm, Willard’s words ring true.

“This era is crazy man. This era is insane.. The NCAA is totally clueless. Lost. I just tried to sign like a 47 year old Chinese guy from the European league, I’m sure he’ll get eligible,” Willard said. “I think Oklahoma just signed a 24 year old Russian.”

Having seen how the floodgates open in college sports in recent years with the advent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals or the free-for-all of the transfer portal, however, this trickle could soon turn into a flood; in the case of NIL, what began as a way for student-athletes to endorse their local coffee shop or campus eatery turned into seven figure deals from boosters.

The midseason acquisition of professional or semi-professional talents sounds exactly like free agency, and the NCAA doesn’t have a winning track record of slowing momentum once the cat’s out of the bag. Using college programs as bona fide professional feeder teams could further increase the gap between haves and have-nots.