Mark Pope left a roster spot open, and it looks like it might just be a genius move. With the NCAA getting sued and losing yet again, the class of 2022 is now looking more likely than not to head back to college.
When will the madness really end?
Nowhere in sight, and that means that Kentucky is going to explore loads of options that they otherwise would not have been able to.
A new name just popped up, according to The Portal Report: Bethune-Cookman forward Daniel Rouzan has been hearing from Kentucky, along with Indiana, FIU, Southern Miss, and Troy.
Rouzan played for 3 different schools through his first 4 years in college, starting at Weber State before moving to Manhattan and then Bethune-Cookman. He averaged 11 points a game the last 3 years and sits right around 4 rebounds per game.
He is not known for his outside shot, making 13-of-43 for his college career so far. He looks like he would be a nice, solid pickup to help fill out the frontcourt. But again, I have to say, when is the craziness going to stop?
We are going to have 30-year-old men and women out here competing against 18-year-old freshmen for scholarship offers. I was hopeful that Congress would do something, but as usual, that isn’t going to happen. The NCAA is scared of lawsuits, and why wouldn’t they be? They seem to lose every single time they get challenged. Some judge somewhere will give an injunction for something. And the lawyers are all lining up to get their cut.
I don’t blame them. College athletics are now just a runaway money train with fans and programs hanging on for as long as possible before the inevitable. Small schools will end athletics, programs will condense to major sports, and everything I love about the college game is going to cease to exist.
There will be no plucky underdog school that stays together for 3-4 years and overcomes. No George Mason runs. There will be parity amongst the big schools because all the donors will ensure they don’t fall behind. But sooner or later that well will run dry too, and teams will rise and fall naturally.
That’s not what I enjoy watching. I don’t care about players making money; they should be able to. But pay-to-play has to end. There has to be some guardrails put in place to keep things moving. I do care that a lot of players will now have longer college careers than a lot of pro players will enjoy. Put 5-in-5 in place for all incoming freshmen and let everyone else play out their 4th years. That is what should have been done IMO. But alas, I just write for a living.
The question remains as to who will actually save college sports. It’s not going to be the NCAA, and it’s certainly not going to be the players or lawyers who are benefiting greatly. Will the fans and donors make a stand and make college sports truly college sports again?
We’ll see.