Was John Wilkins ineligible when he played in ISU's exhibition game Wednesday?

Just wondering about John Wilkins playing in ISU's exhibition game Wednesday while he is currently INELIGIBLE to play in any regular season contest.
It seems like the rules are being applied inequaliy....as ISU appears to have gotten away with something nobody else has...using an ineligible player in an INTERCOLLEGIATE contest.


Recall when NCAA found Bradley athletes ineligible due to issues over the summer of 2005, then, when those athletes played in exhibition games in the fall of 2005, the NCAA specifically cited that was an ADDITIONAL violation because Bradley should have known that even if a player is ineligible or even awaiting a decision on eligibility, that the player should be held out of ALL intercollegiate play - even exhibitions....

Bradley's penalties from NCAA were increased because of that supposed violation of players like Patrick O'Bryant playing in the exhibitions.

Here was the exact NCAA ruling at that time in the case against Bradley (2005)

"COMPETITION WHILE INELIGIBLE" [NCAA BYLAW 14.11.1]
On November 3, 2005, the institution allowed student-athletes B, C and D to compete in
an exhibition game even though the institution had declared the young men ineligible
pending the outcome of an eligibility restoration request for each student-athlete based on
the violations set forth in Finding A. Specifically, the institution declared the young men
ineligible November 2. It correctly believed that any loss of competition for the student athletes
would need to be fulfilled during the regular season, but mistakenly believed that
the student-athletes could compete prior to the restoration decision being determined."



And here is the NCAA bylaw:
http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D111.pdf

"14.11.1 Obligation of Member Institution to Withhold Student-Athlete from Competition. If
a student-athlete is ineligible under the provisions of the constitution, bylaws or other regulations of the Association,
the institution shall be obligated to apply immediately the applicable rule and to withhold the student-athlete
from all intercollegiate competition. The institution may appeal to the Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement
for restoration of the student-athlete’s eligibility as provided in Bylaw 14.12 if it concludes that the circumstances
warrant restoration."



John Wilkins has been deemed ineligible until the 6th game of the season (he has a penalty for professionalism and is currently ineligible), but that would also mean from the NCAA Bylaw that he cannot compete in ANY INTERCOLLEGIATE COMPETITION...and that would clearly include exhibitions as was determined in the Bradley case of 2005. So they have gained a definite advantage by violating the rules it would appear.

Remember -- even last year when Kentucky's John Wall was given a similar "professionalism" penalty -- that Kentucky also held Wall out of exhibition play.


The ruling would seem to say that if players are ineligible for regular season games they are ALSO ineligible for exhibitions...

One of ISU's players, John Wilkins, who is ineligible to play D-I basketball until the 6th game of the season..played in their exhibition.
So -- is this an NCAA violation? Maybe not -- but didn't BU get cited and hit with a little extra penalty with POB since he played in the exhibitions vs. SIUE and Minnesota State in 2005?


This case may not be exactly like the POB case, but it sure is virtually identical to other cases where players had professionalism as an issue, especially others who played in Europe.

Last year when an almost identical ruling went against John Wall for professionalism, he was held out of exhibitions, as were Lucca Staiger,
Mario Stula, Christian Standhardinger, Beas Hamga, and every other similar case I can find.....just sayin'...same true for Kanter-- they didn't dare play him in an exhibition and risk the NCAA's wrath

again....to quote the rule in the NCAA Manual...not my rule -- direct from NCAA
Bylaw 14.11.1
"If a student-athlete is ineligible under the provisions ..the institution shall be obligated
to apply immediately the applicable rule and to withhold the student-athlete from all intercollegiate competition."

I do not see any extra provision that would allow for exhibitions to played while the athlete is ineligible from regular season play!
The rulings were already in place for all of those examples ...
that's why they held Wall out and Beas Hamga went to UNLV knowing he was sitting out an entire year...

One we are very familiar with is Lucca Staiger........
Lucca Staiger's ruling was handed down Oct. 24 2007, and was 33 games (the full 2007-2008 season) ..but if McDermott had applied the Jankovich philosphy to the ruling, then Staiger would have played in Nov. 1 and Nov. 4 exhibition games...but of course he did not.

Same for Nikola Kecman who was given an 12 game penalty in 2008-2009 by NCAA for professional team play in Europe
http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17300&ATCLID=1568540
https://www.nmnathletics.com//downloads1/49832.htm?ATCLID=1624388&SPSID=87805&SPID=10421&DB_OEM_ID=17300

..the ruling in the OSU press even stated that if he is ineligible for regular season play he would also be ineligible for the exhibition.

"THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Monday, November 3, 2008 5:00 PM By Bob Baptist
Junior-college transfer Nikola Kecman will miss the first 12 games of the Ohio State men's basketball season for playing on a club team in his native Serbia two years ago that included players the NCAA considers professionals.

Ohio State announced the penalty in a statement today.
Kecman, a 6-foot-8 forward, will be eligible to return for a Jan.6 game at Michigan State.
Kecman played last season at Eastern Arizona College. He has two more seasons of eligibility after this one at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes will play an exhibition game Nov.13 against Walsh in Value City Arena and open the regular season Nov.20 against Delaware State in St. John Arena."

So, just sayin'.....what's up.....this was a violation for Bradley, and was a violation for Kentucky, Ohio State, Iowa State, and dozens of other schools who had these kids who eligibility was docked those games for professionalism....
So how come ISU got away with it....or did they???