Arizona football’s Harris, Mahdi now in limbo; obstinate NCAA to blame | Michael Lev

What seemed like a win-win now has everyone involved feeling lost.

Max Harris and Ismail Mahdi were back for one last rodeo in the Old Pueblo. The Arizona football program celebrated their return.

A court ruling in Colorado appeared to have opened the gate for them to pursue a fifth and final season of college football. Then, on Friday, the NCAA was granted a stay that, at least temporarily, reverses that decision. Another appeal is forthcoming.

That leaves Harris and Mahdi — as well as Arizona baseball player Garrett Hicks, who announced his return earlier in the week — in a state of limbo.

That’s not a place you want to be, especially for the football players. The Sept. 5 season opener against NAU is two weekends away.

All because the NCAA messed this up in the first place and refuses to concede that point.

Legal challenges

The Division I Cabinet approved a five-year, age-based eligibility structure — aka “five-for-five” — on June 23. At that point, almost every spring season had concluded and most graduating student-athletes had moved on with their lives.

Five-for-five would enable any student-athlete still in school or on the way to play for five seasons with no limitations or restrictions aside from their age. It was simple and clean and considered to be a positive development.

Except, in its infinite wisdom, the NCAA excluded members of the high school class of 2022 who’d just finished playing four seasons in college.

It was an open invitation for lawsuits. Legal challenges came pouring in.

Many of them were successful. Some are still holding up — including the one in Georgia that enabled forward RJ Godfrey to join the UA men’s basketball team (although he still could be suspended for a handful of games; TBD).

The Colorado case, Wisne vs. NCAA, might have been too broad in scope. Whatever the reason, the ruling Friday added an additional level of anarchy to a situation that was chaotic to begin with.

If you filed and were granted a temporary restraining order in another state, you’re probably in the clear — even if you’re currently in an NFL training camp.

If you were granted an eligibility waiver before the enactment of five-for-five, you might be playing in your sixth, seventh, eighth or even ninth season of college football. Such is the case for Montana linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu, who’s 26 years old and began his college career in 2018. He missed multiple seasons because of injuries.

Good for him that he gets to play another season.

Shame on the NCAA for being so inconsistent and unfair to others.

Why fight it?

As colleague Justin Spears observed on social media, it’s ridiculous that a player such as former Wildcat Justin Flowe is eligible for a seventh season while Harris and Mahdi might not get a fifth. What sense does that make?

It would have been so easy for the NCAA to include members of the high school class of 2022 from the outset. A lot of time and money could have been saved. A lot of heartache could have been spared.

So why didn’t that happen? Why is the NCAA — which has lost so many lawsuits in recent years — prepared to die on this hill?

It might have something to do with Capitol Hill. One of the theories floating about suggests that the NCAA is engaging in self-sabotage to further prove to the Senate and Congress that college sports are hopelessly out of control and can only be reined it via governmental intervention. The longer these eligibility battles rage, the theory goes, the greater the case to pass the Protect College Sports Act.

I’m tempted to believe it. Otherwise, the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.

It’s not as if thousands of players will try to return to college. Or that incoming or already-arrived freshmen who’ve signed all the proper paperwork will get booted out of school.

In the case of UA football, which has a roster of slightly more than 100 players, we’re talking about two guys. For UA baseball, Hicks would be one of 40.

Now, some players have managed to get themselves into the transfer portal, which is a different deal than someone returning to their former team. Former Boston College and Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos was granted an injunction Friday enabling him to do just that, and by mid-afternoon it was being reported that he’d end up at Texas Tech.

Again, I have no problem with this. The issue is that there’s no consistency whatsoever.

Some players can enter the portal. Some can’t.

Some are eligible for fifth seasons. Some aren’t.

It just depends on where you filed your case and how your attorney structured it.

Talkin’ about practice

Godfrey made the prudent decision to enter the portal in spring — even though he’d already played four seasons and the five-for-five initiative hadn’t become official yet. As such, he was able to transfer from Clemson to Arizona.

But the NCAA is still trying to hit him with a suspension because, according to court documents, he signed with an agent and played in an all-star exhibition game.

Hopefully, the three exhibition games Arizona is playing — but Godfrey isn’t — in Lithuania will count toward the four-game suspension the NCAA is trying to impose. Not that it’s justified in any way.

All big-time college athletes have agents these days. And, according to the legal filing, Godfrey wasn’t paid to play in the April 3 NABC-Reese’s Division I College All-Star Game.

(He might have been paid in peanut-butter cups — which, frankly, would have been worth a suspension.)

At least Godfrey has been able to practice with his new teammates. So have Harris and Mahdi. But they didn’t come back just to practice.

When will all this be resolved? When will they get the green light again? No one knows.

All that’s certain is that the situation they’re currently mired in stinks.

It’s entirely the NCAA’s fault. It didn’t have to be this way.