ASU AD pumps brakes on Moe Odum return following Big 12 policy banning pro players
Odum signed a professional contract with KB Trepça, a club based in Kosovo, that the European team announced on July 12.
Watch: Graham Rossini doesn't think there's a pathway right now for a Moe Odum return | 25 seconds
Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said the new Big 12 policy prohibiting players from leaving for professional opportunities and later returning makes it less likely that point guard Moe Odum can return for what would be his fifth college season.
Odum, who has recently practiced with this year’s men’s basketball squad, was named in a California temporary restraining order that granted him and dozens of other student-athletes whose college careers began in 2022-23 a fifth season prior to the policy’s implementation.
“Moe is obviously a kid that was great for our program last year. Super excited that he had interest in maybe considering coming back,” Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo Thursday. “He would be affected by this Big 12 policy (that) came out. He had signed a professional contract, so right now, it doesn’t look like there’s a pathway for Moe to return to the Sun Devils this year. But again, things could change at a moment’s notice.”
Part of the new conference-wide policy, which followed similar rules implemented by the Big Ten and SEC, prohibits its teams from rostering players who “signed a contract with any professional sports league to provide athletics services.”
Odum signed a professional contract with KB Trepça, a club based in Kosovo, that the European team announced on July 12.
Rossini said the compliance team continues to look into the situation and that “we’ll see what the next couple days bring.”
Odum led ASU men’s basketball in points (16.4), assists (5.7) and steals (1.4) per game, as well as 3-point shooting (37.7% on 7.2 attempts per game), in the final season of Bobby Hurley’s tenure as head coach.
If he returns, he would give new head coach Randy Bennett the team’s second player (fellow returning Sun Devil guard Bryce Ford), who played minutes at the Power Four level last year.
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Comments
5 Comments
Today the SEC announced they're ready to go to all out war vs LSU to prevent professional athletes from playing college football... I LOVE IT. I'm betting that they've put feelers out to the US District Court in Denver to confirm that they're ready to slap down LSU and the peon District Court who issued the injunction against the SEC enforcing its authority upon member schools like LSU. LSU has already flinched in that Kiffin has had 4 days to announce the return of the 2 NFL Players to LSU, which is, by itself, and acknowledging the fear they have that the SEC will jump on LSU and KIffin with both feet.
In similar fashion to LSU, Houston seems to be ready to challenge the Big 12. They added 2 players who a recent Big 12 rule decided were precluded. While they haven't yet played, I'm predicting that within the next 12-24 hours the Big 12 takes action against the Houston's entire football program. ASU played it smart pulling back on Mo Odum, likely because they could read the writing on the wall.
Like the SEC, the Big 12 is ready to go to war on this one. While they were nice to ASU, not punishing them after they pulled back, Houston has put themselves in very dangerous territory because they're putting the Big 12 in the position where they can hurt the school badly. They could be risking everything from huge fines, losing scholarships, forfeiting games or worse, especially if the sanctions are not limited to just the Houston football program.
If you play professionally, you shouldn't be able to play college. That's just wrong.
The best interpretation of the rule was giving everyone who graduated HS in 2022 a 5th year, but only allowing transfers if you were already in the portal - that makes total sense. I'm totally against professionals playing college sports. If they signed a contract because money would have changed hands, whether they played or not, they're precluded. I also like the rule that says if you declared.for the draft but didn't timely withdraw, you're also precluded.
The biggest problem is all the Court shopping being done by professional litigators who never do anything good, but instead mess everything up. Those litigators are Judge Shopping in lower (inferior) Courts were Judges are taking cases they never should touch because they have a conflict of interest with the parties involved. Those Litigators and those Judges should be sanctioned.