Baylor signed former NBA draft pick James Nnaji, sparking outrage in the college sports world.
Columnist Travis Hines writes that fans are upset because the traditional path of player development in college sports is eroding.
College sports are losing their narrative as a culminating destination or a place for young athletes to grow.
Every week seems to bring a new outrage to college sports.
Whether it’s Lane Kiffin bolting from a national title contender to a conference rival or the lawsuits that are seemingly bestowing endless eligibility to guys in their mid-20s, there’s always something to be upset and annoyed about as the games change faster than we can keep up.
The latest rage-inducing line crossing came when Baylor signed one-time NBA draft pick James Nnaji, who made his Bears debut last week.
Which, yeah, seems pretty crazy!
Although, certainly only mildly surprising as the NCAA’s eligibility rules have been under a full-scale assault since the Supreme Court, in essence, declared open season on the governing body in 2021. Turns out refusing to budge on your business model for decades despite exploding revenues, mounting legal challenges and vanishing public support was a bad idea for the NCAA. Better luck next time.
But, I gotta say, even for someone who has zero problem with the NCAA getting buried under the problems of its own making, Nnaji joining Baylor felt, well, probably too far.
The headline facts made it just unseemly. A second-round NBA draft pick who played in summer league and was part of a Karl-Anthony Towns trade, well, c’mon, that’s an NBA player. Even if you enjoy some schadenfreude of the NCAA trying to deal with absurd circumstances, that felt like a bridge too far.
The actual details, though, softened my stance a bit. Nnaji played in summer league and was a part of that trade, yes, but not only did he never play in an NBA game, he never even signed an NBA contract. He played professionally in Europe, but that hasn’t been much of an issue for the NCAA in quite some time. In a world where we’ve got former G-League players and Euro pros on NCAA rosters, this situation probably isn’t materially different.
Baylor, which No. 3 Iowa State plays Wednesday in Waco (7 p.m.; Peacock), isn’t exactly following the spirit of college athletics here, but, well, neither is anybody else, really. The Bears are just willing to take some heat for it right now to win some more basketball games.
The situation, though, got me thinking about why did we all get so worked up about Nnaji? Other than we get worked up about just everything these days, of course.
I think it’s the continued eroding of what, at its core, college sports has been.
I’m not talking about amateurism. This has been professional sports for a long time, even before NIL or revenue sharing or the transfer portal. I don’t think it actually bothers people that players get paid or even freely transfer. The record-breaking TV ratings for this football postseason or last year’s March Madness suggest we’re all still more than happy to tune in.
What I think is bothering so many people, and why the Nnaji situation resonated, is because college sports is losing two of the components that helped build it into a cultural and economic behemoth.
College sports at the highest level still offered two narratives and paths that resonated with fans: A culminating destination and an unfolding path of development.
College sports fans love their colleges and communities, right? That’s why college sports are cultural touchstones. They’re extensions of the communities many people count as part of their identity.
So when you had student-athletes on your team that dreamed of being Cyclones or Hokies or Blue Hens, it validated the worthiness, the desirability and the pride of those communities. It feels good when other people want to be your people, right?
And even if those players didn’t grow up dying to be Hawkeyes or Buffaloes or Orange, they were still coming here, to your community, to grow, develop and compete. Fans got to see teenagers arrive on campus and the adults they left as, with some sort of idea of their journey in between.
For as wildly different as student experiences are for athletes and non-athletes, for students in 2026 as for graduates of 1966, those sentiments and that journey is something everyone recognized. And appreciated. And valued.
The idea was it was an accomplishment in and of itself or a place to make home until you get to the place you’re trying to go.
Now, though? A lot of that is getting inverted.
We’ve got guys doing the journey backward, going to the pros only to return to college. Or over-staying their welcome with court-ordered longer and longer careers. Not because they love the fight song or frat row or the finance program, but because college sports offers big money. Bigger money, for some, that they could get in the NBA, the NFL or overseas.
Being part of a community or developing yourself into a professional are not the main concerns. Which, I think, is disorienting for people who love college sports. Even the most traditional fans can, I think, swallow pay-for-play and yearly free agency, but losing the timeline is another thing altogether.
I don’t think anybody really wants to see former pros or 27-year-olds on college rosters. I think we all knew for a long time that amateurism was a sham, but I think we all appreciated watching young people trying to achieve their goals. Watching G-Leaguers who don’t trigger “Young Renter Fees” at Hertz or Enterprise ain’t exactly it.
Baylor and Nnaji didn’t break any rules, and I’m not even sure they broke any new ground.
But when draft picks and seventh years of eligibility become commonplace, something is certainly broken.