A strange kind of NCAA reversal is playing out in court, and Cade Tyson is right in the middle of it.
Tyson, the Gophers forward who led Minnesota in scoring last season, is part of Wisne v. NCAA, a lawsuit that could buy him another season on the court. The plaintiffs say they should have been grandfathered into the NCAA’s recent move to give all student-athletes five years of athletic eligibility over five years of school - especially since they were the last incoming class not to get that benefit.
That argument sits at the center of the case. And, as the source material makes clear, it’s not exactly a strong one. That has forced the plaintiffs’ attorneys to try to convince a three-judge court of appeals panel in Colorado that the NCAA - the same group that built this whole system - is somehow the villain now.
There is room to criticize the NCAA, of course. The article notes that one can make a case against the organization for failing most of its members while favoring its wealthiest schools and protecting a status quo that could leave even more programs on the outside. But that is a different fight from the one these athletes are bringing.
The suit is really about timing, and timing can be cruel. These players were just a step too early to get the full benefit of the NCAA’s newer, more student-friendly reforms.
They came along before the extra year of eligibility, before scholarship changes that cover the full cost of tuition, before NIL money tied to their college fame, and before schools began sharing revenue in some form through NCAA contracts. That pool is nearly $22 million per school this season.
For players like Tyson, that extra year could mean a major payday - six figures or more, according to the article. Minnesota would welcome that, too. The Gophers and their boosters would happily support it because Tyson’s return would immediately lift the outlook for Niko Medved’s second season.
The money gap becomes even clearer when the NBA’s development league enters the picture. A player there, if he is not on a two-way NBA contract, can make a maximum of $50,000 over a five-month season.
Still, the judges have pushed back with the obvious questions: why should this class be treated differently from every other NCAA athlete, and how is the market supposed to be defined for the lawsuit’s antitrust claim? There is also the practical issue of privacy, since schools have no interest in publicizing what these players are making, especially for a one-off extra year.
The article lands on the irony at the heart of all this: after spending decades fighting to keep athletes from being paid anything beyond a scholarship, the NCAA is now battling a group of players who want back in because college, for one more season, pays better.
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