If message boards reflect widely held opinions, Greg Sankey is not popular with Alabama Crimson Tide fans, especially Alabama basketball fans. Sankey's main Crimson Tide transgression was his opposition to Charles Bediako gaining eligibility.
Dozens of former professional players have transitioned to college players. But according to the NCAA, Bediako could not be one because he had signed an NBA two-way contract. For the NCAA, playing professionally in the G League or any of the many professional leagues around the world has been acceptable.
In fairness to the NCAA, court decisions have neutered their enforcement of the vague eligibility rules.
The NCAA believes it has a solution. It is known as the five for five rule, giving athletes a five-year window to play in five seasons. Redshirts would no longer be a part of eligibility, including medical redshirts.
The current eligibility environment is described by Sankey as "magnified confusion." Sankey is asking, or perhaps more accurately pleading for the NCAA to provide clarity: "We need to stop vacillating. We need to stop the waiver process where somebody thinks they're doing something good, I guess, and it creates confusion and a lack of clarity."
Can NCAA provide clarity?
Sankey wants a degree of assurance that if the 'five for five' plan is implemented, it will not add more confusion. "Is this going to help resolve issues or is this going to magnify issues? Because there's all these lawsuits about eligibility and the NCAA needs to issue clarity that former professional athletes forfeit their eligibility."
Most fans likely agree with Sankey that college athletes should not be "six, seven, eight, and nine-year" college players. That position includes so much common sense that it is almost incomprehensible how the current mess has evolved. The NCAA deserves considerable blame, but it cannot dictate judicial actions.
Maybe Greg Sankey is doing some windmill tilting in asking the NCAA for clarity. At least he is asking, and NCAA decision-makers should be asking the same of themselves.
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