EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo retired Coen Carr at a meeting and asked him about a hypothetical situation: how Michigan State Basketball how the junior would feel if his Hall of Fame coach came out and brought him back Miles Bridges take his position?
Don’t laugh. This is closer to reality in college sports.
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And that’s a question many coaches, including Izzo, are pondering on Christmas Eve. Baylor lands midseason pickup in center James Nnaji and the NCAA giving the former Detroit Pistons the draft chooses the green light to play right away.
“I thought I had seen the worst. Then Christmas came,” Izzo said after practice on Saturday, December 27.
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo talks with guard Jeremy Fears Jr. (1) from the bench during the second half against Oakland at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025.
Izzo said he had a message for Baylor coach Scott Drew, whom he considers a “good friend” from his time on various committees and Drew’s decade of work in Valparaiso alongside his father, Homer, before joining Baylor in 2003. The 31st-year MSU coach, whose ninth overall Spartans are 11-1 heading into Monday’s home game against Cornell (7 p.m./FS1), is continually concerned about the direction he sees college sports heading.
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“Now we’re taking guys who were drafted into the NBA and everything?” Izzo said. “I told you a month and a half ago – come on Magic (Johnson) and Gary (Harris), let’s do it baby, let’s do it. Why not? I mean, if that’s what we want, shame on the NCAA. Shame on the coaches too. But shame on the NCAA, because the coaches are going to do what they have to do, I guess. But the NCAA is the right one. These people on these committees who are making these decisions to allow something this ridiculous and don’t think about the child.
“So everyone says I’m thinking about my agenda or being selfish. No. Let me be clear, for all of you. I’m thinking, what would be best for my son if he was in this position? And I just don’t agree with that.”
Izzo expressed his disgust in late October on the NCAA’s decision to allow Former G League guard London Johnson eligible to join Louisville with two seasons of eligibility next season despite the 21-year-old having played three years as a pro. Now comes the midseason decision that Nnjai, 21, Detroit’s No. 31 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, can join the Bears midseason and have four full seasons of eligibility.
Nnjai never played in the NBA or G League, but appeared in five NBA Summer League games for the New York Knicks in July and played professionally overseas last season.
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“I asked Coen, ‘Would it be okay if I went and got Miles and brought him back and sat you down?’ I mean, you laugh, but that’s what we do. Somebody’s sitting, somebody’s not playing,” Izzo said. “I just don’t think it’s fair to the players.”
MORE: Tom Izzo tinkers with Michigan State basketball roster
Izzo has consistently adapted, if sometimes reluctantly, to rule changes over the years — from graduate transfers gaining immediate eligibility to blanket waivers to allowing any transfer to play without sitting out a year to all the changes allowing money transactions and offsets. This latest round of on-the-fly rule interpretations has Izzo, one of the few legendary coaching voices remaining and one of the most prominent nationally, seething and rethinking the future of his profession and the time left in it.
“Write this one down: It’ll get me,” he said. “I’m just not going to let it bother me. But it’s going to get to me sooner or later. Sooner or later, it’s going to get to me. Not that I’m too stubborn to never do anything. But I’m not going to recruit Miles. I love Miles, I’d love to see him play. I just think: What’s wrong with that statement? ‘Go replace Coen.'”
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo talks with forward Coen Carr (55) during a timeout against Wisconsin in the first half of the Big Ten Tournament semifinal at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, Saturday, March 15, 2025.
The lines between previous generations between what college athletics stood for and what college sports straddle as professional entities continue to blur today. Izzo pointed out that professional leagues have guidelines for contracts, free agency periods and trade deadlines. The NCAA, which refuses to consider athletes employees for a multitude of reasons, is losing its rules and structures due to threats of lawsuits and court rulings that Izzo doesn’t think the governing body is trying to push back against.
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The educational component of college sports continues to erode and dissolve, one of Izzo’s biggest pet peeves.
“There’s no education,” Izzo said. “The NCAA ruined this.”
Izzo said he received a text message Friday from “a big, very famous coach” that summed up where his feelings were right now with the wave of rule changes.
“He was like, ‘I believe everything you say. Don’t let this ruin your year. Why fight City Hall?'” Izzo said. “I’m not going to fight City Hall. I’m just not going to defend him either. I’m not going to tell you that as a guy who worked for the NCAA for 20 years on every committee known to man. I’m not going to tell you that (Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA), for me, does everything but run away from leadership and makes decisions that are against them. …
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“What we did in the NCAA was a complete travesty to me. We’re just afraid of getting sued and we’re not going to fight anybody. And I think leadership means you fight and you make decisions that are sometimes unpopular.”
Izzo said he would love to poll all 361 Division I coaches to see how many of them are in favor of fluid eligibility rules, predicting that perhaps 5 to 10 percent of them are on board with the changing standards. And he expressed concern that fans continue to become frustrated and lose interest in college sports that are becoming increasingly professional without any guidance.
“If that’s the way it is, and if I have to make these adjustments, then let’s make them. Let’s go pro if that’s the way it is,” he said. “But let’s not be the half, you know what. Because there’s no such thing as being half of that.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article was originally published on Detroit Free Press: Tom Izzo blasts NCAA over controversial Baylor-NBA draft decision
