Baylor Football Player Ruled Ineligible By The God-Awful NCAA For Not Wanting To Be Homeless
Update at the bottom of the page.
A Baylor running back who finally achieved a lifelong dream of earning a roster spot on a college football team was ruled ineligible by the NCAA this week after the powers that be found out he lived in a friend’s apartment while he was homeless.
Silas Nacita, a fan-favorite walk-on football player who earned an academic scholarship to Baylor last fall after transferring from Cornell, spent a year at community college while working toward admission to the four-year institution. During that time, he slept on floors and wasn’t sure where his next meal was coming from. A good samaritan, who clearly saw potential in Nacita, put him up in an apartment as a way to help out a friend. This, of course, is an NCAA violation, and Nacita is no longer allowed to play college football.
From Nacita’s Twitter account:
Meanwhile, the tone-deaf PR department at the NCAA tweeted this out today:
Iowa State forward Daniel Edozie has come a long way since growing up homeless: http://t.co/EvxtNmERyt pic.twitter.com/4pHwF37k58
— NCAA (@NCAA) February 25, 2015
Nacita finished the 2014 season with three touchdowns and earned Big 12 All-Academic honors.
Baylor will likely appeal the decision and force the NCAA to consciously ban a student-athlete from participating in college athletics for finding a way to not be homeless..
UPDATE: The NCAA says it has not suspended Nacita:
The NCAA did not declare Silas Nacita ineligible and Baylor has not requested a waiver for him.
— NCAA (@NCAA) February 25, 2015
[via Deadspin]
Image via YouTube
New tweet from NCAA: “NCAA @NCAA 34 minutes ago
11 years ago at 2:02 pmThe NCAA did not declare Silas Nacita ineligible and Baylor has not requested a waiver for him.”
If this tweet is true TFM got catfished, again.
11 years ago at 2:07 pmWell I’m assuming this article is based off the ESPN post about an hour ago
11 years ago at 2:10 pmYes, the NCAA is responding directly to TFM.
11 years ago at 2:18 pmHelmet Dickers,
11 years ago at 2:27 pmAre you sure it’s the REAL NCAA and you’re not getting cat fishes AGAIN?
I was stating that article was written based off of the information presented in the ESPN article but you know to each his own
11 years ago at 2:28 pmHow could they rule this but let ole Jameis run around all willy nilly?
11 years ago at 2:06 pmBecause this kid is a 4th string running back and isn’t bringing the ncaa a shit ton of cash
11 years ago at 11:14 pmNot to mention that they made almost a billion in 2014 bullshit man
11 years ago at 2:08 pmSo the NCAA didn’t actually suspend him. Solid investigative journalism.
11 years ago at 2:09 pmYou clearly don’t know what “investigative journalism” entails
11 years ago at 2:27 pmActual work?
11 years ago at 2:29 pmI’ve been working on this story for months.
11 years ago at 2:31 pmClosely investigating/analyzing something for a significant period of time and having sources other than Deadspin and Twitter?
11 years ago at 5:23 pmWith the update it’s clear that there’s more to this story than a simple rag on the NCAA.
That being said.. the NCAA is a pretty terrible organization. The “scholar-athlete” argument only really works when 1) major universities don’t bring in absurd amounts of revenue from high performing athletics and 2) all athletes actually get the benefit of a good education.
It’s pretty clear that big name college athletes have a huge marginal product for universities–money from conference revenue sharing schemes and increased alumni donations because of national coverage. But they get “paid” a tiny fraction of their true value.
Although there are some really notable standouts, most “scholar-athletes” aren’t getting much by way of education. Even in the ivy league, academically underperforming athletes are pigeon-holed into departments that are comically easy.
This system creates so many externalities. Colleges use fixers to cheat the system, and the NCAA gets to jerk around poor kids that should be paid a lot of money for their talents. I’ve heard terrible stories from former litigators for the NCAA..
11 years ago at 2:43 pmThis is why I watch the LFL. Nothing better than women in lingerie playing one of America’s greatest pastimes.
11 years ago at 2:52 pmWell, given that last update, it’s pretty clear no one at TFM thought it’d be a good idea to call up the NCAA and figure out what the fuck happened exactly. One source for a story is lazy- it’s not hard to pick up the phone and talk to someone from the other side. If they tell you they won’t speak with you, then by all means go ahead and bash the NCAA because they’re a bunch of greedy assholes. Who knows, maybe it was their fuck-up or they would’ve granted an exception if they knew the circumstances. The first option, however, shouldn’t be to create a shit-storm with a sensationalized article.
11 years ago at 2:54 pmThis story had about 50 national players covering it, thanks though.
11 years ago at 6:29 pmBeing homeless. NF
11 years ago at 4:04 pmHow did I know this was going to be here? Also, irrelevant.
11 years ago at 11:06 pmIn other news, the random fool jumping around like a buffoon, on the bottom right of the picture, is a brother of mine. We still don’t know how he pulled a drunken Houdini and got on the field.
11 years ago at 5:30 pmEither the NCAA or Baylor is lying, and I’m willing to bet it’s the NCAA.
11 years ago at 5:35 pm