Big Ten rule appears to clear Indiana's Sam Alexis for season
The short version
- The Big Ten unanimously adopted a rule barring men's and women's basketball players with certain professional ties from competing at conference schools.
- Sam Alexis, who was paid only a per diem by an Oklahoma City summer league team, appears eligible under the new rule.
- The rule does not resolve Alexis's state and federal court fight with the NCAA, which is appealing a temporary injunction issued last week in Indiana.
- Alexis is one of dozens of athletes from the 2022 high school class seeking another season after the NCAA shifted to an age-based five-seasons-in-five-years model without exempting them.
- As of now, Alexis is eligible to play this season.
A unanimously adopted Big Ten rule on professional ties in basketball appears to answer the conference-level question around Indiana's Sam Alexis; his NCAA court fight continues.
Sam Alexis appears to have satisfied the Big Ten's requirements for playing at Indiana this season. In a statement Monday, the conference laid out a newly adopted eligibility rule, delivering the answer coach Darian DeVries and the program had awaited as they pushed to have Alexis available for the coming campaign.
The rule, which the league adopted unanimously, bars men's and women's basketball players from competing at Big Ten institutions if they signed a professional contract with the NBA, G League or WNBA, or with any club affiliated with those leagues; if they held a spot on an NBA, G League or WNBA roster at any stage; or if they entered the NBA or WNBA draft and neither withdrew nor indicated plans to return to college before the deadline. The conference also said it continues to weigh possible restrictions on professional athletes in other sports.
Nothing in Alexis's background appears to trigger those bans. He was with an Oklahoma City summer league team for part of last offseason and has testified that a per diem was all he was paid during that stretch. Based on Monday's statement, the conference-level question around him now appears settled.
His status had been uncertain for weeks while leagues wrote their own policies. The Big Ten, SEC and others crafted rules deciding whether athletes who had dealings with professional leagues could return to college, and the Big Ten's initial move in that area covered only football players weighing a comeback from the NFL. For basketball players such as Alexis, who explored the professional route last offseason, that meant weeks without knowing whether a college return was possible at all.
Beyond conference policy, Alexis has been pressing the NCAA for an extra season. He belongs to a group of dozens of athletes from the high school graduating class of 2022 who argue they deserve another year after the association moved to a new age-based setup — five playing seasons within five years — without exempting their class. Challenges to that decision have repeatedly gone badly for the NCAA in both state and federal court.
The most notable recent result came last week, when a filing that counted Alexis among its parties produced a temporary injunction against the NCAA from an Indiana circuit court, benefiting dozens of athletes. The association has filed an appeal. A separate court decision restored eligibility for Indiana football players Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt.
None of that litigation is altered by the Big Ten's announcement. The eligibility questions Alexis is raising in state and federal court continue independently of what any conference decides, and the NCAA's legal actions are still in motion.
As things stand, Alexis enters the season eligible, the conference matter behind him while the NCAA's appeals play out.
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