emperorjustin

I always round down so if you ain't 💯 you ain't nothing. GT 2020. GT/UGA/UA fan, in that order

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

1. My goodness Mendoza is amazing.
2. Tennessee is taking this team to the shed next week.

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@jparkjmc That's a pretty disgusting stray at Mew2King for absolutely no reason

[Georgia Tech Baseball @GTBaseball]

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃?!?!?!

#StingEm🐝 x #THWg

[Georgia Tech Baseball @GTBaseball]

TECH WINS!!!!

The Jackets run rule No. 5 FSU for the series SWEEEEEEEEEEP!!

GT is 30-5, tied for the best 35-game record in program history!

#StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@CFBNerds "No one does that"

Except for Georgia Tech for some moronic reason

Agree 100% btw

[College Football Nerds @CFBNerds]

An attorney's explainer of the Bediako eligibility ruling: this is actually a small step stemming from a number of bad, inconsistent decisions regarding semi-pro players.

Let me say up front, my opinion is that none of these semi-pro players should be playing. This is bad for college sports, and this suit is another bad move toward making that harder to stop. But that doesn't make the suit wrong or unfair as a matter of law.

It's important to understand why Bediako won the TRO (and will likely win an injunction next week): the NCAA has been chipping away at enforcing its own rules regarding semi-pro players for years, especially those abroad, and it makes making Bediako ineligible an "arbitrary and capricious" decision in view of others that is open to judicial review to be overturned.

The NCAA (not a judge) granted eligibility to Baylor's Nnaji, who played for premier Euro team FC Barcelona after being the 31st pick in the NBA draft but not signing with a team. As another example, the UConn AD came out saying that Bediako's wins shouldn't count for the tourney, but at the same time UConn just signed and is now playing with two Euro players including Uroš Paunović, who spent the last 4 years playing for Serbia's top professional division. Alabama's main rival, Auburn, signed Filip Jović with 2 years professional experience in Bosnia. All of these players are 21-23 years old at enrollment (often as "freshman"). The hypocrisy of everyone involved (Alabama, UConn, the NCAA, etc.) is just absurd.

As to the legal basis, two snippets from Bediako's complaint are below for reference - the NCAA's continued refusal to follow their own rule that "an individual may compete on a professional team
(per Bylaw 12.02.4), provided the individual does not receive more than actual and necessary expenses to participate on the team," by ignoring when players get $1M plus in "semi" professional basketball, opened the door wide for a lawsuit. As the complaint notes, if a player can be drafted and play two years later, or play professional ball in Europe for four years before enrolling, why can a Canadian playing American basketball who enters the draft and goes undrafted not come back when he is otherwise still within his 5 year eligibility window?

The lawsuit itself is a state suit that alleges a restraint on trade and interference with contracts, among other things, based on an arbitrary and capricious application of NCAA rules. A temporary restraining order (TRO) was granted, which is generally based on whether there is an "irreparable harm" and whether there is a "likelihood of success on the merits" in the full suit. That TRO expires next week, but that is tied to a hearing for a preliminary injunction which I would expect to be granted given that the TRO was granted under the same facts.

As we've said in prior tweets, the NCAA is essentially a trade union - they have no real legal backing and are thus totally at the mercy of all state laws and rulings. The TRO includes a strongly worded provision against punishing "or implying to punish" Bediako or Bama for the ruling, so the NCAA is completely bound by the order absent appeal. Even if the ruling is reversed, a retroactive punishment would almost certainly be viewed as contempt of court (violating an order later overturned is generally still contempt), so ignoring the order would potentially open the NCAA up to massive liability. The only real way to supersede these rulings would be if we pass a federal law granting the NCAA legal power to enforce basic eligibility rules.

This is just my personal opinion, but as a legal matter I think the NCAA is responsible for digging their own grave here and the legal basis for Bediako's claim is reasonable. If the NCAA doesn't want Bediako to play, they need to also bar Nnaji, Paunović, and Jović, as well. The NCAA can make this a "one-time" deal, but to do so they need to start enforcing rules across the board. With NIL, state laws in California and Florida "broke" NCAA rules, but in both instances the NCAA had a chance to create reasonable rules and enforce them consistently, and their failure to do so is the ultimate reason this happened - not the lawsuits.

I just don't see how the NCAA can argue that European professional basketball players can be a 22 year old freshman with no issue, but an American player who enters the draft and goes undrafted can't. NONE of these players should be able to play - but the line the NCAA has tried to draw seems legally untenable.

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

You can always count on Dan Lanning to spot you about 10 points every big game on over-aggressive 4th down attempts alone

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@GrahamCoffeyDC It really felt like the Ohio State offense in big games was asleep but a moment away from waking up and dominating. Just a bizarre lack of urgency all season. All that talent, and now the season is over with 14, 10, and 14 points scored on the best Ds they played

[Graham Coffey @GrahamCoffeyDC]

Maybe people are struggling to accept the Ohio St juggernaut theory because Ohio State’s best win is 14-7 over Texas

Florida had 254 more yards vs Texas then OSU did and were +16% in the Success Rate battle while Ohio State was -9%

OSU is very good and has also played nobody

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@CFBNerds @drewcydrew12 I appreciate you fighting the good fight for all of us SEC fans even though it is the furthest thing from popular to do so

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@MalikRutherford Thank you Malik

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

Where was the ACC Live Look on that one?

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@King_Szn10 I mean imagine how bad that overtime loss against UGA felt last year and then imagine that happening about 5 times to Georgia with higher stakes against this very team. He has earned the right to say that

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

Wow Mendoza is so elite but the OSU D is also so elite with their elite D-line and their elite cornerbacks who are covering the elite Indiana wide receivers and they're all led by elite coaches and it is all just one giant display of eliteness on every play in some shape or form

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@JuckOnBucks Oh so these are the people crying about hypothetical matchups while using hypothetical matchups in their arguments. This makes so much sense

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@MattThompson87 I have been thinking this the entire year

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@ralphDrussoATH Nobody thinks that worse team can't beat a better team (people know Bama is better than FSU now). It is more an insistence that head-to-head actually matter over abstract, gameable metrics provided that W-L (which the committee has shown to be the be-all-end-all) is the same

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

@CFBReport Oh really? Which ones? We all agreed to this system, didn't we? Nobody complained when a Mountain West team with 0 ranked wins fed Penn State a playoff win in the second round

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

Haynes King you are the greatest QB in GT history. Absolute GOAT. We need a statue for you. I don't care what happens the rest of the season, thank you for everything

[emperorjustin @emperorjustinus]

Georgia Tech every single week