Will Barton has been now declared eligible by the NCAA after additional information was provided to the NCAA by Memphis. This is a real coup for Memphis, and I am glad to see that Barton is going to get to play college basketball. What I question is what changed so much in such a short time? I mean no inference to any wrongdoing, but that maybe this is another indicator of the fact that the NCAA is far behind in it's work that they are in serious need of a change in the way they do business. We sit idly by and wait for the Kanter business to clear, not because there is something there, but because the NCAA will not get off it's duff and get down here and interview the kid, make their determinations and move on.

I am perfectly fine with the explanation that the NCAA is overworked and understaffed. That is a very plausible explanation. But is it a necessary one? The NCAA is not broke financially. They not only have money in the bank, they are rolling in it. They have broadcast contracts that are paying billions, and they don't have to do much to get that money. Why do they refuse to put people in place to speed up and smooth out these processes when all it would require is actually hiring and putting people to work? Not to mention that now is the perfect time to be looking for new employees since unemployment is higher than a kite all over the nation. Will the new head of the NCAA Mr. Emmert, who wants to fix the one and done situation, start fixing things by actually hiring some people and making progress in the area of qualifying and approving kids to actually get scholarships and get into school?

Getting Will Barton is a wonderful thing for Memphis and the rest of the NCAA because it proves that the process can work. But why was there a need to have a crisis about Barton in the first place? Spending even a little money (by the NCAA's standards) would go a long way towards making the process better and more consistent. At the very least it would give at least some credibility to an organization that is rapidly losing what little bit of credibility they have. It will not make things perfect, but it will make them better.