An evergreen question: Why is Tom Izzo pissed off?
“The goalposts are always moving,” Michigan State‘s Hall of Fame coach told 247Sports recently. “It never ends.”
In this case, “it” is the rules of engagement on building, retaining and compensating a competitive college basketball roster. Today, those ever-moving goalposts are back in federal court.
The legal and moral delima du jour: To take one of last year’s seniors or not to take one of last year’s seniors. College basketball coaches, whose jobs depend on winning above all else, are torn on the answer. They’re also frustrated that it’s even a question.
“At this point, our roster’s pretty well set and our money’s gone, so I’m not really going to do anything,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats. “I think some teams held spots and money in case this happened, and they’re probably going to benefit from it. You just assume they’re not going to change the rules after everybody is done putting their teams together, but I guess that’s not a safe assumption anymore.
“It seems like now they’re just asking for lawsuits every which way possible to create chaos to make Congress pass legislation. Why else would you pass that new rule in the beginning of summer and not in the fall?”
The gist of this current crisis: Just when we thought rosters were largely set for the 2026-27 season, the NCAA adopted a significant rule change in June. The new age-based eligibility model, allowing athletes to have five seasons of competition in a five-year window after high school, excluded players who exhausted their traditional four years of eligibility this spring. But of course it wasn’t going to be that simple. As expected, a flurry of legal challenges and judges’ injunctions in Ohio, Tennessee, Colorado and elsewhere followed, then NCAA appeals and renewed pleas to the federal government to intervene.
Today, it’s unclear whether all of last year’s seniors — or some of them, or none of them — will be eligible to play college basketball this season. The NCAA has issued warnings to member institutions that essentially say, “Recruit those players at your own peril.”
It’s a dangerous game, but one that might be worth playing for a number of coaches who could take their rosters from average to good, or good to great, with just one or two more quality additions. Arizona‘s Tommy Lloyd, fresh off a Final Four appearance and in need of a starting four-man to make another run, fits that description.
