‘Insanity.’ Amari Bailey’s NCAA re-entry request ’embarrassing.’ Reactions

College basketball faces a sizable dilemma when it comes to eligibility rules, and it’s quickly getting into trouble.

The latest player to try to be reinstated is former UCLA guard Amari Bailey, who is done with the Bruins after the 2022-23 college basketball season and appeared in 10 NBA regular season games with the Charlotte Hornets.

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“I am now a senior in college,” Bailey told ESPN in a statement. “I didn’t want to play college sports at 27 years old. It doesn’t throw shade at the guys who do; that’s their journey. But I went to the pros and learned a lot and experienced a lot. So, it’s like, why not me?”

While Bailey is not the first player to rejoin the NCAA after declaring for the NBA, Bailey is the first with actual NBA game experience, and NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said in a statement on January 30 that the NCAA will not grant a qualifying waiver to “any player who has signed an NBA contract.”

Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti also expressed his frustration on social media.

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“It’s another unnecessary potential hurdle for an aspiring high school athlete. It’s hard not to,” Penetti said.

Those weren’t the only reactions from people in the college sports and college basketball world, there were reactions including AI-generated photos of NBA players wearing college uniforms, like LeBron James and Nikola Jokic, who never went to college.

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College Basketball Reacts to Amari Bailey’s Reinstatement Request for College Basketball

Here’s a clip of the social media reaction to Bailey’s request to return to college basketball: