Thoughts of the Day: May 12, 2026

Denzel Aberdeen may have gotten help from an unexpected source in his quest for a waiver (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

With the NCAA likely to exclude grandfathering in players who have already completed four years of eligibility when it enacts the 5-for-5 legislation, the Florida Gators and Denzel Aberdeen got a boost in their quest to get Aberdeen his fifth year. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, gave an eligibility waiver to Franck Kepnang, a 6-11, 225-pound big man originally from Cameroon, who transferred to Kentucky last week.

Kepnang, it turns out, began his collegiate career at Oregon where he spent two years before playing four years at Washington. He has never averaged double figures but he meets Kentucky’s priorities – he’s tall and he’s breathing. Big deal that he will be playing his seventh season, right?

The NCAA made its decision based on Kepnang’s history of injuries. He has played in 17 or fewer games in four of his six seasons. Last year at Washington he played in 25 of the team’s 33 games.

Meanwhile, there is Aberdeen, who spent three years playing for the Gators before he transferred to Kentucky where he averaged 13.5 points per game last season for the Wildcats. He transferred back to Florida and has petitioned the NCAA for a waiver that will allow him a fifth year of eligibility.

As a freshman at Florida, Aberdeen played in 12 games, a total of 36 minutes. Nine of those minutes were in the Gators’ NIT loss to UCF. That is the basis for the waiver petition. Compared to Kepnang, this should be a slam dunk yes decision by the NCAA, but, as we all know there is nothing simple about NCAA decisions. Most of them make little to no sense.

Aberdeen should get the waiver, but if he does not he can always take the route of the state courts. It certainly worked for Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who spent four years in Division II at Ferris State (Michigan) before transferring to Ole Miss last year. There were at least a couple of years at Ferris State when he hardly played but when he petitioned the NCAA his waiver request was denied.

So, Chambliss went to a local court in Oxford and a judge ruled him eligible. The NCAA appealed and the case went all the way up the chain to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which ruled favorably for Chambliss. Rather than try to take the matter up in Federal Court, the NCAA has dropped the matter completely. Chambliss will be playing QB for Ole Miss this fall.

The NCAA could rule in Aberdeen’s favor, that’s for certain, but if they don’t there are dozens of lawyers ready to take the case to the courts. Based on what we’ve seen from the NCAA in court cases through the years, Denzel would almost certainly become eligible, especially with precedents like the cases of Kepnang and Chambliss, not to mention the fact the NCAA is going to implement five years of eligibility starting with the 2026-27 athletic year. Players who are already on rosters but haven't had a fifth year will be grandfathered in but those who are seniors? It's very hard to imagine that standing up to a test in the courts.

Prediction: Denzel will be playing for the Gators next season.

SARK: “WE’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT ACADEMICS”

As college athletics continue to spiral out of control, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian laments the lack of guardrails that have turned control of sports to boosters and networks. Adding to the misery is the matter of rules. Sports are treading on new ground every single day and there are no rules to keep up. And, where there are rules in place there is no enforcement.

Tampering is rampant. Dabo Swinney of Clemson had a transfer from California in class when Ole Miss offered him seven figures. The player transferred. Swinney has proof. Then there is the transfer portal which has players going from school-to-school, selling themselves to the highest bidder. Players who come from abject poverty suddenly have generational wealth at their disposal with absolutely zero knowledge of how to handle money.

Everywhere the dream of making it to the NFL is sold, but Sark points out the folly of this pitch.

“It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5-percent of these guys will play in the NFL,”Sarkisian told USA Today columnist Matt Hayes.

When it comes to transfers, Texas has rather strict academic rules but far too many schools have rather loose standards.

“At Texas, we will only take 50-percent of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian told Hayes. “You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50-percent if you play here and want a degree. But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.”

In the same interview, Sarkisian also took a shot at those pushing for the College Football Playoff to expand from 12 to 24 teams.

“I’d go back to a four-team playoff, and have your own conference playoff to get the four teams if you want more inventory for your television partners,” Sarkisian said. “We have to think outside the box. Just adding teams and going to 24, that’s a very spastic view, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. Forever in college athletics, we don’t think about the unintended consequences of decisions we make. It’s all knee-jerk reactions. Look where it has gotten us.”

Indeed.

ONE FINL PITHY THOUGHT: This is called tapping the brakes and the one doing the tapping is Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey. The Big Ten (plus eight), led by its commissioner Tony Petiti, and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) are pushing for expansion of the College Football Playoff from the current 12 teams to 24. Sankey likes the current 12-team playoff but if there is to be expansion, he will concede four more teams for a 16-team model.

Not only has the AFCA endorsed expanding the playoff to 16 teams, but so have Notre Dame, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12. Well, of course they would. More teams in a playoff means it’s tougher for college presidents to fire a head coach that got his team into the 24-team field. Notre Dame was snubbed last year. The ACC champ was Duke, but only Miami made the playoff. Only one Big 12 team got in. The Big Ten, meanwhile, had three teams and the SEC five.

Included in the Big Ten proposal are an earlier start to the season, elimination of one of the bye weeks during the regular season and the elimination of conference championship games.

Sankey, easily the single most powerful man in all of college sports, says uh-uh. His reasons are simple and fair: (1) Expanding to 24 teams would seriously diminish the importance of the regular season since it is inevitable that teams with four losses would make the playoff; (2) It is a violent game so two bye weeks are a necessity to lessen the wear and tear on athletes’ bodies in a 12-game season that also includes the possibility of playing three or four more playoff games; and (3) the SEC Championship Game is a cash cow that is under contract with ESPN/ABC/Disney through 2034 with a two-year option to extend through 2036.

What Sankey hasn’t said, but needs to be pointed out is the fact that there are only a handful of teams capable of running the playoff gauntlet and emerging as a national champ no matter how many teams are involved in the playoff. An 8-team playoff would accommodate the championship quality teams. Beyond the eight real contenders there are only pretenders.

Sankey has the leverage here. With his deal with ESPN, which broadcasts the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, he can afford to stand his ground. His contract with the ESPN family of networks is rock solid. On the surface it may seem the SEC is outnumbered by those backing the Big Ten proposal, but in reality, the SEC and Big Ten are the two that will make the decision about how many teams are in the playoff. Nobody else.

The Big Ten may have produced the last three national champions, but since 2000, the league has hoisted the championship trophy five times – Ohio State (2001, 2014, 2024), Michigan 2023 and Indiana 2025. During the same time frame the SEC has 15 national champs – Alabama 6, Florida 3, LSU 3, Georgia 2 and Auburn 1. Serious advantage SEC.  

A decision on playoff expansion has to be made by December 1. Right now, the SEC and the Big Ten are like two ships passing in the night a thousand miles apart. The closer it gets to December 1 the more likely it is that either Petiti or Sankey will cave.

If you’re a gambler, put your money on Sankey. He knows there can’t be a true national championship playoff without the Southeastern Conference.