Braxton Beverly ruled ineligible by NCAA because he went to school

Well, this figures. On the same day in which the NCAA exonerated UNC for decades of academic malfeasance, it punished a kid who happened to start going to class at the wrong time. That, right there, is the NCAA in a nutshell.

NC State freshman point guard Braxton Beverly’s request for immediate eligibility has been denied by the NCAA, as Jeff Goodman reports. NC State will appeal this decision. (And would win said appeal if there were any common sense involved, which obviously there is not.)

If you’re not familiar with this particular case—and it is an unusual one—here’s the explainer, from August:

Beverly signed and enrolled at Ohio State and started taking summer classes before Thad Matta was fired in June. Beverly asked for and was granted his release by Ohio State but the fact that he started classes there calls into question his status in the eyes of NCAA bylaws.

If he had not started class, there’d be no question at all; he’d simply be treated like any other incoming freshman, eligible to play immediately. Because he did attend class, it’s possible the NCAA will instead classify him as an undergraduate transfer, which would force him to sit out this season.

The NCAA has indeed decided to classify him as an undergraduate transfer, which is a massive pile of bullshit, but hey, I mean I guess when you get the chance to screw a kid over a technicality, you take it, right?

Beverly has done absolutely nothing wrong. Like any other recruit stuck in the middle of a coaching change, he decided to opt out of his commitment and look elsewhere. In this case it just happens that he’d started attending classes at his initial school before asking to leave.

And that’s how we somehow reach a point where the NCAA is punishing someone for going to class. I’d say you can’t make this up, but sure you could, it’s the NCAA, after all. The NCAA exists only as vague theory propped up by a bunch of idiots in suits who have to find uses for all the pens they have lying around the offices that serve no certain purpose, have no cause, and certainly hold no moral interest.

These people are useless. They witlessly sniff around for busywork, and when they find something they can actually figure to wrap around NCAA rules, they leap on it, out of the deep-seated understanding of their vestigial existence.

This is an organization that forms a commission to address the perceived problems in college basketball and fills it with people who have no idea what happens within college basketball. Prove you’re necessary by doing something, anything, even if it is pointless.

Which winds back to the Beverly case. They could have done the right thing, but most likely that wouldn’t have occupied enough office hours, wouldn’t have kept enough imbeciles pretend-occupied with a “tough case” or whatever the fuck they prefer calling it. There’s actual human lives impacted here, but fuck it, man, we gotta look important!