The sentence nobody quotes. Sankey filed an affidavit supporting the NCAA in the Charles Bediako matter — the first player with college experience to sign an NBA contract and come back. In it he wrote that letting former pros return creates “a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness” for athletes who didn’t pursue a professional career. And then the second half: it’s also unfair to the programs that operated inside the existing framework and therefore didn’t go add a former professional athlete to their roster. It’s unfair to the schools that followed the rules. That’s the entire argument, on the record, before any of this touched LSU or Ole Miss.
Declared, signed, or listed. The Big Ten went first — football only, and the penalty is a half-season suspension for the head coach plus a school fine. Not the player. The coach. Then the SEC went further: 16-0, covering men’s and women’s basketball too, and written so you can’t argue your way through the gap. NFL, any other pro football league, NBA, G-League, WNBA or affiliate. All three doors at once.
And the position Kiffin is in this morning. For a week he told that roster it wasn’t good enough — not in a press conference, but by going out and doing it. Now he has to convince the same group they’re good enough after all. “You just told me last week I needed to be replaced. Now you need me to run through a wall for you against Clemson?” Ole Miss has been through this exact thing — 2022, 8-1, then four straight losses. The talent was still there in November. The belief went out of the building.
And it cost us too. Corey Stephenson — an 18-point scorer who signed an Exhibit 10 with Detroit and played four Summer League games — is ineligible. And that’s the correct outcome. The rule I want is the rule I want regardless of who it costs. Plus the honest counterargument from Bediako’s attorney, and what’s still unresolved.