Everyone is saying that. Can you explain why? I thought he was gonna be ruled ineligible?
A suspension is definitely better than ineligible.
Ok, there are several legal aspects of the case, but I am only going to talk about the one that I think is the biggest issue...
2008 Penny Hardaway donated 1mil to build the Penny Hardaway HoF building.
(that made him a booster)
2016 Memphis hired Tubby Smith, 5 year 15mil contract.
2017 Penny was the coach at East High School. He gave 11500 to Wiseman's mother for moving expenses to move to Memphis.
2018 Out of nowhere, Tubby Smith was fired. 10mil buyout for a non-p5 school. Basically they had little choice but to hire someone who was more interested in helping the school than money in their pocket.. Penny.
During 2018, Penny started recruiting Wiseman and notified the NCAA about the moving expenses..
This is where my issue comes in....
May 2019 the NCAA rules James Wiseman eligible.
June 2019 the NCAA notifies the UofM that they had made an error and Wiseman should not have been eligible BUT because they made the error, their policy is to stand by their original decision, so Wiseman was ELIGIBLE.
Now, this is where it just gets wrong...
Wiseman enrolls and begins taking classes at the UofM. Wiseman begins practicing with the team. At this point Wiseman is now locked into his choice.
Oct 31st 2019 UofM is notified that due to "new interpretation of the rules" James Wiseman is "likely" ineligible.
that is what is messed up.. They SHOULD have ruled him ineligible in May, addressed the situation so Wiseman could then make decisions based off of their decision. He could have gone over seas like RJ Hampton.. he could have appealed... he could have atleast gotten the punishment to know what he needed to do to regain eligibility.. he could have chosen to go to a different school (KY)..
but NO... they wait until he is actively practicing with the team and taking classes so he would have to go through a transfer and possibly sit out.. The kid is one and done.
A rule was broken... even if Penny didnt consider himself a booster, nor was there any way in the world he could have known in 8 months he would be offered the coaching job at Memphis, it was absolutely irresponsible for Penny to give benefits to the family of a recruitable athlete. That is a problem in any way shape or form.
The lawyers involved have quite a few other things to work with, 1 being the definition of a booster. Right now a booster is for life. If you make a 1 time donation when you are 25, you are booster when you are 95. Even if something happens and you grow to HATE that university and completely disconnect from it. Every season ticket holder is a booster now, since almost all colleges require a donation to buy season tickets.
