As we come upon the Blue-White Game tomorrow, the black cloud of the John Wall eligibility investigation still hangs over all of our heads. For the first time, a Kentucky official is acknowledging the issue, albeit indirectly, to everybody’s favorite UK writer Jerry Tipton.

I still don’t believe there is any reason to fear for Wall’s long term future, but I’d be lying if I said that I’m not uneasy about all of this.

Without ever saying John Wall’s name, University of Kentucky president Lee Todd acknowledged on Tuesday that one of the school’s basketball players faces questions about his amateurism that could affect his eligibility.

Last week, Southeastern Conference Mike Slive told ESPN.com that the UK player was heralded freshman John Wall.

“I think the commissioner made his statement which I’m not sure he intended to make, but he made it,” Todd said after a meeting of UK’s Board of Trustees.

Todd said he felt “very comfortable” with no UK official admitting a question existed on a player’s eligibility until Tuesday because “there’s no reason to expose him to a whole lot of newspaper articles when it’s not necessary till we get a final decision.”

Todd declined to comment about his confidence that Wall will ultimately gain his eligibility or how long it will take the NCAA to render a decision or if Wall can play in Wednesday night’s Blue-White Game.
A NCAA spokesperson said last week that players who have not gained academic or amateurism eligibility can practice but not play in competitions. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question about whether an intra-squad scrimmage qualified as a competition. Or whether the competition had to be against an outside opponent.

When asked if Wall faced a serious threat to his eligibility, Todd said, “No comment. If we chose to talk about it, we would have talked about it a long time ago. You’ll know about it (the decision) when we know about it.”

Todd defended the UK decision not to comment.

“It may come out that there’s nothing there,” the UK president said, “so why drag some child and the mother through all that because people want to sell newspapers.”

Todd said he felt no obligation to simply inform UK fans that a question existed about Wall’s eligibility.

“I think the fans would like to know what the outcome is,” he said. “But I don’t think they need to know all the ins and outs because it’s a child’s life we’re trying to protect. And there are privacy rules that we abide by and I feel very comfortable abiding by those privacy rules.”

Another SEC school, Mississippi State, has admitted for weeks, if not months, that amateurism questions must be answered so one of its heralded freshman, Renardo Sidney, can gain his full eligibility.

Obviously, MSU does not share Todd’s allegiance to privacy rules.
“I’m not making decisions for anybody else,” Todd said.