By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The NCAA is again staring down the barrel of a paradigm-shifting inflection point in the future of college athletics as professional basketball players are returning to college, further testing the first “A” for “Amateur” in the league’s name.
The two tests of the league’s amateurism policies are Toni Bilic and James Nnaji, both professional basketball players who left their teams to join college programs in the middle of the season (Illinois and Baylor, respectively).
As college football players opt out of college games to prepare for pro careers, basketball is seeing a tide in the opposite direction.
Bilic, a Croatian, has been playing professionally in his native Croatia for years, including the last three with Cedevita Junior Zagreb. While European pros coming to the NCAA is not unheard of, Bilic’s case is unique for a few reasons. One is his age: Bilic played professionally as an adult, not just as a junior (which is not uncommon in Europe), and is coming over at age 20.
The other is that he will only practice with the Illini for the rest of the season, and not play, with an eye on development.
His club KK Cedevita Junior is a five-time Croatian Champion, and in spite of the name is not a junior or youth club.
Nnaji, who is Nigerian, was selected 31st overall int he 2023 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons before his rights were later traded to the Charlotte Hornets and later the New York Knicks. He has been playing professionally for FC Barcelona since 2020, first on their B team and then on their A team. He was then put on loan to another top-flight club Girona, and then to a club in the Turkish league.
In July, he announced he and FC Barcelona were mutually opting out of the last two years of their contract.
Spain and Turkey are two of the highest-paying leagues in Europe, with salaries averaging in the mid-six figures and the highest paid players rumored to be as high as $4 million per season.
Because of the ballooning nature of NIL, the calculation about playing in a lower-level professional league versus playing in the NCAA has shifted. While basketball isn’t seeing the same valuations as football, Forbes estimates that top NCAA players are making in the low millions per year.
There are more rumors that Trentyn Flowers, who has played in the NAB and three weeks ago competed in a game, is being recruited by a number of NCAA programs, which would escalate the risks even further. Flowers is making approximately $636,000 on a two-way contract, meaning he is flexing between the NBA team and its G League (minor league) affiliate.
“He’s a good player, he would be a great player in college,” one NBA executive familiar with Flowers told NJ Advance Media, implying that his earnings cap in college could be higher than they are in the NBA.
It’s unclear what would happen to his status with the NBA if he returned to college.
The NCAA provided a telling statement to college basketball outlet The Field of 68.
I asked the NCAA whether players with NBA experience were eligible to play in college.
This was the statement they provided to @TheFieldOf68. pic.twitter.com/FcPiZ5ifOz
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) December 29, 2025
“Schools are recruiting and seeking eligibility for more individuals with more international, semi-pro and professional experience than ever before and while the NCAA members have updated many rules following the House injunction, more rules must likely be updated to reflect the choices member schools are making. At the same time, NCAA eligibility rules have been invalidated by judges across the country wrecking havoc on the system and leading to fewer opportunities for high school students, which is why the Association is asking Congress to intervene in these challenges.”
Analysis
A war-weary NCAA, worn down by endless lawsuits any time they try to enforce any eligibility rules, is staring down the barrel of years of pain. Their statement sends a clear message: that they are done fighting against the marketplace’s insatiable thirst to win at any cost, regardless of the principles.
The NCAA is the target but are realistically a service organization for the member institutions, which are the ultimate decision-makers.
Collegiate athletics, like most professional sports, never really fit into the framework of American employment law. Most professional sports have received judicial or congressional relief from those laws in order to preserve a system viewed as vital to the fabric of the American culture.
Ignorance of that legal disconnect for years created a situation where the lawsuits outran the legislation and the NCAA has been twisting in the wind to the tune of billions of dollars.
While they haven’t come out and said it, their recent public statements and campaigns urging congress to act have made their new approach clear: they will rewrite any rules they need to in a form of ‘brinksmanship’ in hopes of forcing congress to act and create a more sustainable future for collegiate athletics – which has felt like the only real endgame for at least a decade.
The issues of college sports are bleeding over into the political sphere, with one example being the governor of Louisiana basically inserting himself as the final decision maker on LSU’s next head football coach. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz also posted on social media about the issues facing college athletics on Monday.
An absolute crisis.
Congress NEEDS to act. For months, I’ve been working night & day to try to bring Republicans and Democrats together to save college sports.
If we fail to do so, it will be an utter tragedy. And it’s happening right before our eyes. https://t.co/XOekKlF3Th
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 29, 2025
While the specter of a bursting bubble in NIL payments have begun as fanbases come to the realization that $50 million+ in NIL payments don’t guarantee championships, so far colleges, and their wealthy alumni, are sending a clear message that they are willing to push just about any button to gain a competitive advantage.
The NCAA’s latest statement is basically saying that ‘if any school asks us to change a rule, we’ll change that rule, and we’ll keep changing the rule until you all hate this so much, that congress steps in.” Or the alternative, that the entire system folds.
Australian Lani Pallister told SwimSwam earlier this year that she didn’t swim in the NCAA because the league told her that she would have to repay any prize money she earned. While her being Australian complicates the matter, it feels as though a U.S. swimmer who wanted to push the buttons here and return to the NCAA (say, Katie Ledecky or Carson Foster) might have their way.
Whether schools would be willing to stick their necks out the same way for a swimmer as they are a basketball player remains to be seen, but the foundation that prevents swimmers who have taken prize money (or raced on an ISL team) from returning to the NCAA is eroding by the week.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: As NBA-Drafted Hoopers Return to College, the NCAA’s Congressional Campaign Ramps Up
