NCAA eligibility changes to impact young NBL stars

The NCAA looks set to make a big change regarding the eligibility requirements for incoming students, under new guidance that was distributed to colleges earlier this month.

The most significant of these changes will affect student-athletes who “entered an agreement with, competed on or received compensation from a team that participates in a league with minimum compensation that exceeds actual and necessary expenses.”

Simply put, if you have played in a professional basketball league, it will be highly unlikely that you will have your college eligibility reinstated.

“While the end goal of this new change is the correct one, the timing of this abrupt change isn’t fair,” said NBL Champion and former college standout Pete Hooley.

The initial document has listed the MLB, NBA, NFL, Premier League and WNBA as the prime examples of players who have been part of those leagues that will be ineligible from returning to college, while other top basketball leagues are expected to fall into that same category.

Founder of Draft Express, Jonathan Givony, took to social media shortly after the news broke about the looming changes.

“The NCAA's new (very poorly timed) rule sends a clear message: international players are no longer welcome in the college game. ACB, France, Italy, Australian NBL and anyone who's ever played for a EuroLeague team, even for next to nothing, are suddenly permanently ineligible?”

It is currently uncertain how quickly or how forcefully these changes will be brought in, which could have a cloud weighing over the future of some of the NBL’s brightest young stars.

“Guys like Owen Foxwell and Tristan Devers, should not be suddenly punished for taking advantage of the ridiculous rules the NCAA originally had in place,” Hooley said.

“These young kids have made huge career decisions based on the fact that the NCAA had been allowing them to do so. So, any immediate change that would leave them high and dry is completely unfair.”

Foxwell and Devers were two of the first NBL players from last season to commit to a college program, with the former Phoenix guard heading to Wisconsin and Devers to Washington.

As those two had already ticked all the required boxes to become eligible, there's hope they will still be allowed to continue forward, as colleges have been aware of this since May 8, and yet continued to recruit the young Australians.

However, other potential young stars like Mojave King, Ben Henshall and even former NBL Next Stars could suddenly be in limbo.

In a statement made to Sports Illustrated, an NCAA spokesperson said this was part of the future to make things fairer for college sports.

“The Association is modernizing the rule book in several ways to ensure college sports are played by college athletes and not used as a fallback for professional athletes, and the age-based eligibility model now under consideration is designed to address many member schools’ concerns regarding eligibility.”

Hooley believes that while these changes are necessary, such an abrupt move wouldn’t be right.

“In the end, these types of changes are 100% needed, because college sports had become farcical in terms of who could be eligible,” Hooley said.

"College sports needs to get back to young student athletes playing, rather than 25-year-old former NBA draft picks who just want a nice bag of cash.

“But, you just can’t possibly tell a young kid who was able to go down this path because the NCAA had allowed them to, all of a sudden, that you’re out and good luck wherever you land.”

Since the introduction of NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) allowed college athletes to receive compensation from third-party endorsements, social media and their personal brand, without losing their eligibility. Whereas, up until that was approved, even the smallest breach of those rules would see a college athlete sanctioned.

“Times have certainly changed. The fact you have young players earning millions of dollars to go to school and play basketball, it was a pipe dream at one stage,” Hooley added.

“Don’t get me wrong, even that at the time was a change that needed to happen, but it has gotten out of control.

“In 2015, our starting big man accepted a free burrito after we advanced to the championship game. He was found guilty of breaching the rules and subsequently suspended for the big game.”