According to NCAA procedure, Kentucky and freshman Enes Kanter are at the final stage of the effort to gain the player’s eligibility.
Last fall, the NCAA declared Kanter permanently ineligible because he received $33,033 in excess of permitted compensation in the third and final year he played with a professional team in his native Turkey.
UK appealed that decision. When that appeal was presumably denied, the school cited “new information” in asking that the two-step process be re-started. NCAA rules do not permit new information to be presented in an appeals hearing, so UK had to ask that process return to Step One.
It has been widely reported, first by Foxsports.com, that the second appeal would be heard Thursday. If true, and there’s no reason to doubt the validity of the reports, that meant UK and Kanter had lost again in the initial judgment on his eligibility.
If the second appeal is denied, which is expected, UK and Kanter would have no further recourse through the NCAA to gain the player’s eligibility.
As UK Coach John Calipari suggested a few weeks ago, Kanter and his family could seekrelief through the U.S. legal system in the form of a temporary restaining order to prevent the NCAA ruling from being immediately in effect.
Such a ruling would leave UK vulnerable to a repeat of the case of Derrick Rose and Calipari-coached Memphis in 2007-08. Despite questions about the player’s entrance exam, Memphis played Rose. Memphis had to vacate its 38 victories that season and return money earned in the NCAA Tournament when the player was retroactively ruled ineligible when the testing service invalidated Rose’s entrace exam score after the season.
If the appeal is denied, Kanter can continue to receive financial aid to attend UK. But he would not be allowed to participate in games nor practices.
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