NCAA's Cameron Newton decision spurs a tidal wave of support for Kentucky's Enes Kanter

  In case you missed it, the NCAA has been playing yo-yo with Auburn’s Cameron Newton this week.  On Monday, the NCAA ruled that there would be issues with Newton’s eligibility and Auburn prompltly declared him ineligible on Tuesday and immediately requested that he be reinstated.  And on Wednesday, the NCAA ruled that Cameron Newton is eligible without conditions and issued this statement:

"“Based on the information available to the reinstatement staff at this time, we do not have sufficient evidence that Cam Newton or anyone from Auburn was aware of this activity, which led to his reinstatement,” said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president for academic and membership affairs. “From a student-athlete reinstatement perspective, Auburn University met its obligation. … Under this threshold, the student-athlete has not participated while ineligible.”"

Wow.

Now apparently the NCAA has another appeal to hear because from all indications. Kentucky held their appeal for Enes Kanter today and should announce their decision on Kanter’s eligibility hopefully in the next 1-2 days.  Does the Newton ruling have anything to do with Kanters.  No.  probably not.  But it does draw a very interesting parallel between two fathers.

Fom all indications, Cameron Newton’s father openly shopped his son’s services to a couple of schools for cash.  This much is admitted fact.  And the NCAA is ruling that because it was the father that broke the rules, the son is eligible to play.  Now, from what we know of Enes Kanter’s father is that he was meticulous in maintaining his son’s Enes’s college eligibility and even spurned contracts to pay his son.  And because the Kanters knowingly did not break any rules, the son Kanter is permanently ineligible to play for Kentucky.

Is this confusing or just wrong to anyone else?

Apparently I am not alone in being outraged and confused by this latest confusing action by the NCAA.  The Sporting New’s Mike DeCourcy is equally outraged and says the the only option for the NCAA to regain credibility is to restore Kanter’s eligibility and allow his family to repay the disputed funds:

"Enes Kanter might be permanently ineligible because his family, thousands of miles and a culture or two removed from NCAA regulations, did not properly interpret what their son would be allowed to accept from a club while he practiced and competed. Kanter was only 16 years old when all this began, and yet he is being held strictly liable for how his family managed his eligibility. He is derided by many in the media as a “professional,” the word pronounced as though spelled with entirely scarlet letters. Cam Newton will be permitted to play the remainder of his college football career, whether it’s two more games or through the 2011 season. His family had every reason to fully understand NCAA rules, because Newton already had gone through the recruiting process once and played two seasons at the University of Florida. And yet Cecil Newton has acknowledged attempting to arrange for a payment from Mississippi State in exchange for getting his son to sign there last winter. Cam Newton is being excused on the grounds he did not know about that pursuit. One family purposefully does wrong, shredding the NCAA’s most obvious rule, and the son prospers and excels. One family mistakenly stumbles outside the more ambiguous pages of the NCAA’s rulebook, and the son sits with the weight of permanent ineligibility draped across his shoulders. If the NCAA wants its operation to be perceived as serious, and certainly it does given the billions at stake, there can be no option other than to order Kanter’s family to repay the amount in question and restoring his eligibility immediately, counting the six games missed as time served."

Elsewhere, Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas could both be seen on ESPN Wednesday night spouting similar verbiage and say that if Cameron Newton is allowed to play, surely the Enes Kanter decision must be overturned as well.

perhaps the “FREE ENES campaign is not over yet as it seems to be building momentum in the face of the NCAA’s irrational logic.

Stay tuned …

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