Kanter Ruled Ineligible and All is Well With The WAC

The NCAA ruled today that Enes Kanter is permanently ineligible due to the fact that Kanter received $33,000 in excess of the necessary expenses permitted by the NCAA.  Kevin Lennon, NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs, stated the following on a NCAA web site posting;

"Enes took advantage of an opportunity to play at the highest level available to him, but the consequences of receiving payments above his actual expenses is not compatible with the collegiate model of sports that our members have developed."

Kanter's eligibility had long been the subject of controversy since he came to the United States over a year ago. As the Kentucky Herald Leader noted, "At least two prep school coaches turned down the chance to add Kanter to their teams last year because he played three seasons for Fenerbahçe Ülker, a pro team based in Istanbul."  If you go to the NCAA web site posting, it notes that the NCAA contacted Kentucky in March with questions about his involvement with that Turkish team.  The NCAA then gave Kentucky and Kanter information in June which they received from the Turkish team that detailed the benefits Kanter received.  Kanter and his father confirmed this in June.



I have talked about the Kanter controversy twice previously on this site, once on October 13, where I noted the NY Times article which stated that Kanter received over $100,000 in benefits.  I even predicted in my October 13 posting that Kanter would be ruled ineligible.   I posted a second article on October 30, which discussed the  fervor that "The Antichrist" caused when he compared Kanter's situation to Mississippi State's Dee Bost.   All of this of course didn't dissuade Kentucky fans from starting the above "Free Enes" movement.

Well Kanter is now free...to declare himself eligible for the NBA draft.  Kentucky plans to appeal the decision.   Considering the NCAA had the actual dollar figure on their web site posting, good luck on that one.

Also in that aforementioned October 30 article on this site, I also noted the news about the WAC losing Nevada and Fresno State in addition to losing Boise State to the Mountain West.  I also said "don't cry for the WAC just yet."  And sure enough, the WAC added three teams for the 2012-13 season - Denver, UT San Antonio and Texas State.   Denver made a lot of sense since they were out of place in the southeastern based Sun Belt conference, while the WAC wanted to have a presence in football heavy Texas.