We are headed towards a season beginning 11/2 where some 2022 players are eligible and others aren’t eligible. That is chaos. As Rick Barnes and Todd Golden and Tommy Lloyd have all said— the NCAA caused this chaos by mishandling the rollout of a five year rule and the NCAA could easily stop it. The reality is the NCAA knew it wanted to pass a five year rule in April. It could have awarded 2022 players a fifth year at that time without issue. It didn’t announce the proposed interpretation of the rule until late June, and didn’t adopt a bylaw until August. When it did adopt the new bylaw, the text of that bylaw didn’t include the carve out the June proposal included. The NCAA’s purported justifications for the carve out are all post hoc— and in court, the NCAA has yet to name a single displaced athlete or name a reason, outside their theoretical, unproven displacement argument, why allowing 2022 players a 5th year is uniquely bad, given they are giving 2023-25 players a fifth year. In pleadings this week, the NCAA has lamented all the lawsuits, all while paying BigLaw fees to fight them. Competitive equity, fairness, and common sense suggest what the NCAA should do. But they fight on.