Kentucky’s Kanter case could have new life

The odds are still small, but in light of what happened with Cam Newton, Kentucky sees an opening.

The university is dropping its appeal of the NCAA’s ruling, which came three and a half weeks ago, that Kanter is ineligible to play college basketball, instead bringing in a new attack. The university and the NCAA filed a joint press release, which doesn’t happen all that often. Silver lining in that, perhaps?

Here’s part of the release:

“When a school receives new information that could impact a student-athlete’s eligibility, it is a standard NCAA process to provide the university with an opportunity to resubmit the case for consideration. Because an NCAA appellate body, such as the Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, cannot hear new information on appeal, this reconsideration must first be made by the NCAA reinstatement staff. The university would then have an opportunity to appeal the staff decision to the committee. This opportunity is available to ensure a fair and thorough consideration of eligibility matters for the student-athlete. The NCAA and University of Kentucky will not have any further comment regarding the specifics of this case until the process has concluded.”

Andy Katz has a source that’s telling him we’ll get a response to this secondary request within the next seven days. Most believe it’s still going to be a no. Why? Because it’s rare the NCAA turns around on these kinds of calls. Kentucky claims it has new and improved info to help its case, but that’s not to be shared with the public just yet. Question. How did the new information get found? Was someone searching through file-cabinet folders in the dead of night, flashlight in hand? That’s what I’m going with.

A critical fact in this: Kanter’s situation doesn’t parallel Newton’s. But Kentucky’s desperate, and there is good, logical arguments out there as to why Kanter deserves to play.

The NCAA hasn’t budged so far, though. This issue has been on life support for a month now, and the doctors aren’t ready to put down the defibrillator.

Although it was hardly a king’s salary, Kanter’s approximate 33K  in extra, non-living-expense earnings with his Turkish team, Fenerbahce, from 2006 to 2009 was too much for the NCAA to ignore. What newly founded facts could be powerful and persuasive enough to cause the NCAA to about face?

Matt Norlander 

collegehoopsjournal.com