The NCAA will not grant eligibility to any player who has signed an NBA contract, president Charlie Baker said Tuesday, in a strongly worded statement that added some clarity amid questions about who is eligible to play college basketball.
College basketball’s eligibility rules have been in flux since Christmas Eve, when Baylor signed 21-year-old forward James Nnaji — the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft — to its roster, setting the stage for a drafted player to participate in college basketball for the first time. In recent days, On3 and CBS Sports reported college teams have shown interest in Chicago Bulls two-way guard Trentyn Flowers.
Baker said Tuesday that NBA players under two-way contracts would also not be eligible to play college basketball.
The @NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an @NBA contract (including a two-way contract). As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising…
— Charlie Baker (@CharlieBakerMA) December 30, 2025
Nnaji, a Nigeria native who most recently was playing in Turkey, was granted four years of eligibility at Baylor. The NCAA’s justification for granting Nnaji eligibility was that he never signed an NBA contract. He has spent most of his pro career under contract for Barcelona, though NBA teams have held his rights since the 2023 draft — and his rights were included in the trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the New York Knicks in 2024.
Baker pointed to an NCAA bylaw that says a player may compete professionally and retain college eligibility as long as “the individual does not receive more than actual and necessary expenses to participate on the team.”
“As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses bylaw to ensure that prospective student-athletes with experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts,” Baker said.
“Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience midyear.”
Nnaji isn’t the only notable midseason addition this year, although his situation is certainly the most unique. Across the high-major level, there have been roughly a dozen midseason additions in college basketball from players who have competed in either the G League or overseas. Notable additions include former G League guard London Johnson (Louisville), Serbian forward Nikola Dzepina (Washington), Russian forward Kirill Elatontsev (Oklahoma), former G League guard TJ Clark (Ole Miss) and former G League center Abdullah Ahmed (BYU).
These midseason additions, especially from the G League, represent the latest in a growing list of challenges to the NCAA’s longtime eligibility standards. Due to several court orders and injunctions in recent years, the NCAA has lost much of its enforcement power regarding player eligibility. That includes the precedent set by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia — which granted an additional year to players who spent at least one season in junior college and whose eligibility was set to expire during the 2024-25 athletic year — and the recent wave of former international pros who have flocked to college basketball, which previously would have violated the NCAA’s policy on amateurism.
That pushing of the envelope has inspired strong responses over the last week from leaders in college basketball like Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Arkansas coach John Calipari, who have railed against the NCAA’s toothlessness as well as their coaching peers. Many, including Dan Hurley, have called for the creation of an oversight body to shepherd college basketball through this era of rapid change.
“If that’s what we’re going to, shame on the NCAA,” Izzo said. “Shame on the coaches, too. But shame on the NCAA, because coaches are gonna do what they gotta do, I guess. But the NCAA is the one. Those people on those committees that are making those decisions to allow something so ridiculous and not think of the kid.”
Now the question is whether Baker and the NCAA can hold the hard line they’re attempting to draw in the sand and provide the guidelines that coaches say they’re seeking.
“While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility-related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions enjoining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades — without even having a trial — are wildly destabilizing,” Baker said. “I will be working with (Division I) leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution.”
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