The NCAA and How It Has Handled College Sports Has Been an Embarrassment to Watch.

The NCAA is an Embarrassment.

When the organization began changing eligibility rules and introducing NIL into college sports, questions were already being raised.

Fast-Forward to today, and those questions haven't disappeared.

They multiplied.

College sports are supposed to be about competition, development, and opportunity.

Instead, we're watching athletes, coaches, schools, and families try to figure out what the rules even are.

You have athletes receiving NIL Money and then sitting out.

You have 25- and 26-year-old athletes still competing in college sports while younger athletes are waiting for their opportunity.

And you have eligibility rules being introduced, challenged, and changed while athletes are already making life-changing decisions based on them.

That's not leadership.

That's confusion.

The NCAA’s new age-based eligibility model was supposed to simplify things. Beginning with future classes, it generally allows Division I athletes up to five years of eligibility based on age and enrollment rather than the previous season-based system.

But then came the class of 2022.

These athletes were initially left outside the new five-year model because they had already completed four seasons under the previous rules. That led to lawsuits arguing that they should receive another season as well.

And then the courts got involved.

A federal judge in Colorado granted an injunction allowing the class of 2022 athletes to compete for another season.

Then, on Aug.21, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted that ruling.

Now athletes who thought they were coming back are once again facing uncertainty.

Think about what that means.

A player can spend months preparing to return.

A school can make roster decisions around that player.

A family can plan around another year of scholarship and NIL opportunities.

Then a court ruling can change everything.

That's not just paperwork.

That's someone's life.

This isn't a video game.

We're also seeing Athletes who have already moved toward professional sports returning to college when opportunities open up. In some cases, courts have granted temporary eligibility while other cases remain unresolved.

So what exactly is the NCAA trying to build? I would love to know.

Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like an organization trying to manage a system that has already grown beyond its control.

And that's the problem.

The NCAA doesn't just have to make rules anymore.

It has to make rules that survive courts, NIL, changing labor dynamics, universities, athletes, and the reality that college sports is now a massive business open for everyone to see, not closed doors.

If you can't create a system that athletes and schools can understand, how are you supposed to lead it?

And let's be honest: the athletes are the ones living with these decisions. They're the ones whose scholarships can disappear.

Their professional opportunities can disappear.

Their families can be affected.

Their futures can be affected.

Meanwhile, the NCAA continues trying to catch up with a system that has already changed, and let's be real.

Is lost.

At some point, something has to give.

Maybe college sports need a new governing structure.

Maybe the NCAA needs to completely rebuild how it operates.

Maybe there needs to be a new organization capable of creating one clear set of rules that applies consistently instead of leaving athletes to fight for their eligibility in court.

Because right now, that's what we're watching.

A legal chess match.

An eligibility guessing game.

And Athletes caught in the middle.

You can fake leadership.

You can't fake accountability.

And you definitely can't pretend you know what you’re doing when the people you’re supposed to lead are the ones constantly asking, “What happens to me now?”

The NCAA looks more like a courtroom than a system.

And that's an embarrassment.