The NCAA announced Friday that Memphis freshman James
Wiseman has been ruled ineligible for receiving financial resources from
Memphis coach Penny Hardaway. The five-star center was the consensus number 1 recruit
in the nation entering 2019 and is widely projected to be the number 1 pick in the
2020 NBA draft.
Wiseman was permitted to suit up for Tuesday night’s contest
against Illinois-Chicago due to a Shelby County judge temporarily halting the
NCAA’s ruling. “The University is currently working with the NCAA staff to
restore his playing status, and we are hopeful for a speedy resolution to the
matter” School officials said in a statement released Friday.
Hardaway has been named a booster by the NCAA for funding
Wiseman and his family’s move to Memphis in 2017. Hardaway, a Memphis alumnus,
was not yet coaching the Tigers at that time. The total financial compensation provided
to the recruit’s family was $11,500.
Boosters are permitted fairly wide access to opportunities
to support universities, but NCAA rules forbid them to offer financial incentives
to recruits.
While it would certainly be disappointing as a fan to miss
out on watching a talent such as Wiseman perform at the collegiate level, I
find it hard to cast too much blame on the NCAA here. The involved parties had
to have either known about the rule or would have been recklessly naïve not to
have known.
I’m not arguing that Hardaway’s actions were harmful or
without good intent. However, I feel that his actions left the NCAA no choice
but to act. $11,500 is not a huge sum of money in the grand scheme of the billion-dollar
industry that is college sports and paying for a family moving expenses is
hardly an extravagant benefit. My problem is that allowing boosters to engage
in this type of behavior sets a dangerous precedent.
Failing to punish actions such as Hardaway’s opens the door
to boosters all over the country opening up their checkbooks and outbidding one
another to bring blue chip prospects to their favored universities. Imagine the
kind of impact that a booster like Nike co-founder Phil Knight could have in
recruiting players to his alma mater Oregon. The NCAA allowing for booster
donations would have a significant impact on the competitive balance of college
athletics, a competitive balance that already favors large schools with extensive
and wealthy alumni bases as it is.
The decision to rule Wiseman ineligible with have ramifications
impacting not only Memphis, but universities throughout the nation. Despite the
recent decision by the NCAA to let student athletes profit off their likeness,
the organization has continued to crackdown on the receipt of other benefits.
Ohio State defensive end Chase Young was suspended from competition this week
after allegedly accepting a loan from a family friend.
These developments will serve to continue the mounting of pressure
on the NCAA to take action on the issue of student-athlete compensation.
Critics are quick to cite that players wouldn’t have to resort to shady under
the table dealings if universities were forced to share in the billions of
dollars of revenue that they rake in from college athletics.
Even as the tide appears to be
turning towards players receiving some form of compensation, this behavior was
not permitted when it happened in 2017 and it still isn’t today. This may well
be an acceptable benefit for boosters to offer somewhere down the line, but
that day has not yet come.
Ultimately, I can’t fault the NCAA for enforcing its rules.
I have no outrage towards Hardaway or Wiseman for their actions, however they
knew or should have known that they were in clear violation of NCAA policy. Nobody
will be surprised to see the discussion of altering these rules come to the
forefront of national conversation in the coming days, however in the meantime
it seems Memphis will be without their best player and maybe even their coach.
