Drafted players back in college making it a new world for Aztecs

San Diego State hosts Boise State on Saturday night in an early Mountain West showdown that could have major implications on the title race.

But the college basketball world’s attention will be elsewhere Saturday, in Fort Worth, Texas, where TCU hosts Baylor in their Big 12 opener. And where a 7-foot center could make his college debut two years after being selected in the NBA Draft.

The NCAA recently cleared 21-year-old James Nnaji to play for Baylor despite being drafted No. 31 overall in 2023 and twice having his rights traded, most recently to the New York Knicks. Nnaji was born in Nigeria, moved to a basketball academy in Hungary at age 13 and has spent the last four years playing professionally in Spain.

He’s never suited up in the NBA regular season, although he did participate in the 2023 and 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, once for the Charlotte Hornets and once for the Knicks.

NCAA eligibility has been hurtling down a slippery slope for years, first with transfers no longer required to sit out a season, then an extra year from the pandemic, then junior college not counting against your Division I clock, then seven-figure NIL payouts shattering any remaining illusion of amateurism, then an influx of full-fledged European and G League pros.

Nnaji, though, crossed a line that elicited acerbic reactions from some of the sport’s biggest names amid desperate attempts by NCAA president Charlie Baker to rationalize the decision.

“This s*** is crazy,” UConn coach Dan Hurley tweeted.

“It’s wild out there right now,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few told reporters.

“We’ve got no rules,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said in a six-minute rant about the unsettled state of college basketball.

“If that’s what we’re going to, shame on the NCAA,” a disgusted Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “Shame on the coaches, too.”

Even Baylor coach Scott Drew expressed reservations about the horse galloping out of the barn door he opened.

“Early on, when it first came out with G League players, I wasn’t in favor of that, either,” Drew said. “But again, we don’t make the rules and as we find out about things, we’re always going to adapt to put our program in the best position to be successful, because that’s what we get paid to do.”

Baylor isn’t the only team with impact midseason additions – or should we call them acquisitions? A 6-10 post from the G League went to BYU, a 6-11 Russian center to Oklahoma, a Serbian forward to Washington, a Belgian point guard to Dayton.

But that’s just a few players at a few programs to fill a few roster holes. Wait until the spring, when everyone has open roster spots and the creative, cynical juices really start flowing on coaching staffs around the country.

It will be the Wild, Wild West … and Midwest, and Southeast, and East Coast.

“It’s definitely crazy times,” said SDSU sixth-year senior Jeremiah Oden, who is out of eligibility after this season and won’t have to worry about it. “I feel for the decision makers. I wouldn’t want to be at the NCAA, trying to figure all this stuff out.

“(But) things in life evolve. That’s just what this is for college basketball. I think in 20 years, it will be the new normal.”

Where would Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher draw the line?

“I don’t want to be the negative guy,” he said before practice Friday, “but I think if you go pro, you’re a pro and this is still, until they change the way we approach it, college athletics. I don’t want to take anyone’s opportunity away. But if you make a choice to go pro, I think you’ve made your choice.”

That’s not how the NCAA, or the U.S. court system for that matter, sees it, and what is a trickle of pros into the college game could become a deluge, especially given the precedent set by Nnaji.

The NCAA cleared him because he is within five years of high school graduation; hasn’t played in the NBA; has received modest pro compensation within the governing body’s vague “actual and necessary expenses” parameters; and hasn’t previously played in college.

The last part seems ripe for the next court challenge and could bring chaos on college rosters well into the summer and even the fall.

Say an underclassman submits his name for the NBA Draft, as SDSU guard Miles Byrd did last year, but doesn’t withdraw before the NCAA-mandated May deadline to retain his collegiate eligibility. Say he’s drafted in the second round, where rookie contracts aren’t guaranteed, or goes undrafted and plays in the NBA Summer League. Say he’s invited to training camp with an NBA team but isn’t under a full, binding contract.

Say he’s waived in late September and merely offered a $40,000 G League deal.

The Nnaji precedent may pave the road for him to return to college, creating a conundrum for coaches trying to fill their rosters via the spring transfer portal. What happens if you don’t know if a star player will be back until October? Or do you say a few spots knowing 50 or 100 such players might be available in the fall?

Trentyn Flowers, a five-star prep recruit who bypassed college basketball for the Australian pro league, could be the test case. The 6-8 wing is currently on a two-way deal with the Chicago Bulls, appearing in two NBA games but predominantly playing for the Bull’s G League affiliate.

A two-way contract pays up to $646,000 if you last the season but isn’t guaranteed. A blueblood college program pays four or five times that for 35 games.

“It’s interesting,” Dutcher said, considering the scenario. “If they don’t sign the contract they want, I think some of them are making more money in college. If it’s a financial decision, maybe they will come back.”

And therein lies the real problem. College basketball, suddenly, has become the second highest-paying league in the world behind the NBA despite not operating under traditional business parameters – heavily subsidized by university support (which is taxpayer dollars in the case of state institutions), mandatory student fees and booster donations all the while receiving an “educational mission” tax exemption.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way when athletic departments agreed to the House settlement last year, which set a $20.5 million cap per school on revenue-sharing for all athletes, an estimated 20% of which would go to men’s basketball.

But programs brashly ignored that limit and found ways to circumvent it through imaginative NIL deals. Kentucky’s basketball payroll this season reportedly is $22 million. At least 30 schools, according to one list compiled from a power conference administrator, have exceeded $10 million. (SDSU is just under $3 million.)

Minus a collective bargaining agreement with athletes, or a federal antitrust exemption providing protection from lawsuits, college basketball has essentially become a pro sport with unlimited annual free agency and no salary cap – and increasingly few enforceable rules reigning it in.

A bipartisan House of Representatives proposal called the SCORE Act (Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act) hoped to provide some, but House leadership cancelled a recent vote amid squabbles over its language.

Meanwhile, Nnaji has been practicing with Baylor and could make his season debut Saturday at TCU. Flowers is considering his legal options.

“Until we get the government involved, which I think everyone is trying to do, we won’t have real clarity as to what anything is,” Dutcher said. “I think we’re supposed to be dealing with some kind of salary cap. I don’t know if that’s happening. When I’m out recruiting, I don’t think people are really thinking it’s a real thing with the money being tossed around.

“I’m just trying to keep San Diego State relevant on a national level, doing the best I can to do that.”