The NCAA announced they will not give players five years of eligibility… for now.
Josh Whitman made the announcement yesterday. Whitman is the Cabinet Chair and also Illinois Athletic Director. He didn’t completely close the door on the topic in the future, but at least for the next
two seasons the rosters are as they’ve been. You get five years to play four.
I have mixed feelings on the topic. I think how eligibility is currently determined is kind of ridiculous. I don’t know how they can say they’re evenly applied when a football player can play in four games but still be considered a redshirt, while a basketball player can play in a single game in January and lose his redshirt. I think four years is plenty to play in college, but the NCAA is allowing players who are in the G-League to come back to school. It just feels like they’ve lost the plot.
Players should not be denied their ability to earn money as long as the school is profiting from their participation in sports. But this also isn’t a professional league. Watching professional basketball players from overseas move to the States to play college basketball because they can make more money feels wrong, somehow.
I don’t feel bad for the NCAA, this is the bed they’ve made for years in denying players compensation. I do have some compassion for the coaches and staffs who have to figure this all out on the fly. For years eligibility meant one thing. If you turned pro you gave up your eligibility. But now we have guys returning from the pros to play in college?
How does that work with the 5 year clock?
I don’t know. It’s someone else’s problem to figure out.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
It feels like Thursday is always a big day for posts, and we’re prepping for Vandy so let’s get into it:
- BOWL PROJECTIONS: Everyone still has Mizzou out of the playoffs:
A win at Vanderbilt on Saturday would give Missouri its first ranked win AND its first win against ANY opponent with a winning record.
If I can complain a bit… I’ve always hated that winning games against teams you’re supposed to beat is viewed as a bad thing. Plus, one of the reasons those teams have losing records is because they lost to Mizzou! Kansas is 41st in SP+, Carolina is 52nd. and Auburn is 29th. Is it more impressive to beat Houston who is 6-1 but 52nd in SP+? Arizona State is 5-2, ranked in the AP top 25 but 55th in SP+, so is beating them more or less impressive than South Carolina?
- True’s What’s the TREND is back, and we’re just beginning to talk about Olugbude:
If anybody’s stock is rising it is true freshman receiver Donovan Olugbode, who had five receptions for 69 yards in Mizzou’s overtime victory. Safe to say the Tigers have a bright one.
As the season has progressed, Olugbode has continued to get more and more implemented into the offense, it’s only a matter of time until he’s an every day player on the team. Who knows, this upcoming week could be the start of a complete takeover.
We’re not done with Donovan either, the future is bright enough that Rory picked it up even moreso.
Against Auburn he had a team-high 69 receiving yards and five receptions. His longest play of the night was on a 27-yard catch and run that brought Mizzou to the 3-yard line with time winding down. On the next play, Ahmad Hardy ran into the endzone to tie the game at 17-17. Without Olugbode, this game could’ve ended differently.
It’s rare for a freshman to be as clutch as he’s been, but here’s to hoping we get to see a lot more of him going forward.
- True also spent some time looking at Mizzou’s short history with the ESPN program we call ‘College GameDay’:
Being on the road is tough, but this won’t be the first time Mizzou’s been tested in front of the College GameDay crew outside of Memorial Stadium.
In what was Missouri’s first-ever appearance on College GameDay, Lee Corso pulled out a Sooners mascot mask and put it on his head.
I honestly don’t remember watching College GameDay during these years. I don’t really watch now, there was a period in the 2010s where I watched pretty frequently but yeah… it’s a nice way to feature different schools and it’s fun if Missouri get them to come back to COMO, but I don’t really think about it much.
NON FOOTBALL STUFF
SEC Basketball Preview SZN is hot and heavy and probably the biggest story yesterday (not really but oblige me) is the MIZZOU HOOPS PREVIEW DROPPED, I picked the Tigers 6th in the SEC:
How good Missouri is this season will largely come down to how good the supporting cast can be. The Tigers looked like gangbusters last year when Anthony Robinson II and Trent Pierce were playing well, mostly because they knew they could get production from Mark Mitchell, plus Grill and Bates, and Tony Perkins was on his worst days still a quality guard. That framework of players was the ground floor of an NCAA Tournament team.
I feel pretty good about the top four in the rotation but I’m really curious how the rest of it shakes out.
Have you been keeping track of the previews on each player? DataMizzou is through most of the roster at this point, most recently was Trent Burns:
In this episode, Matt provides an in-depth analysis of Missouri’s Trent Burns. In this episode, Matt discusses Trent Burns, a promising player from Mizzou. He covers Burns’ physical attributes, injury concerns, offensive and defensive skills, and his potential impact on the team. Despite facing challenges due to injury, Burns is highlighted as an intriguing prospect with a unique skill set that could benefit Mizzou’s performance in the upcoming season.
Want a look ahead into the Exhibition Game against K-State? We’ve got you there too:
The highlights are a pair of Euro prospects in freshman guard Andrej Kostic and junior forward Elias Rapieque. Kostic, a 6-foot-6 combo guard, is skilled and shifty as a handler who’s shown he can finish through contact and rack up fouls. As for Rapieque, he averaged 16 minutes per game as a regular member of Alba Berlin’s rotation during Euroleague action. You don’t import (and pay) those guys to fortify your bench mob.
MBB 2027 RECRUITING: Matt Harris dove into the film and data on target Jarvin Hayes, a wing in the 2027 class:
The 6-foot-5 guard picked up his offer in June 2024 and, earlier this spring, mentioned MU as a program that has been in regular contact with him. Since then, Hayes’ list has narrowed to regional programs like Georgia, where his father and uncle played, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State. He’s taken unofficial trips this fall to Athens and Clemson.
Hayes averaged 20.1 points and 6.0 rebounds suiting up for Atlanta Xpress on Under Armour’s circuit this spring, cracking double figures in all but one outing. While we can’t calculate his usage rate, he received almost 21 touches per game and finished in the 77th percentile for offensive efficiency among 16U players in the UAA.
Subscribe if you haven’t already to read more.
Forums Talk
Some really interesting stuff over on RM+: Matt Harris has a full breakdown of the preseason polls:
Steadily, MU gained separation from Texas and now finds itself between tiers, but roughly half of the sample has the Tigers finishing seventh or eighth. The reason the average doesn’t reflect that are four outliers — Massey Index, Hoops HQ (Seth Davis), College Basketball Today (Rothstein), KP’s H.U.M.A.N. poll — that have the Tigers in 11th place. As you saw today, we have MU finishing sixth, but that’s not a major divergence. It could be a simple matter of tiebreaker rules come SEC Tournament time.
We’re ready for the season to start.
Rock M Radio: Talkin’ ‘Bout Vandy
Keep your eyes peeled today for a fun video with me and Mizzou Assistant Coach Ryan Sharbaugh.
Subscribe to Rock M Radio on Apple Podcasts. Or stream episodes through Megaphone or Spotify. Have a question for us? Leave a 5-star review with your question and that show just might answer it in an upcoming episode!
If you like Rock M Radio drop us a Review and be sure to subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform. Follow @RockMRadio on Twitter and if you haven’t already head over to our YouTube channel and click that subscribe button!
(** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)
