Do Not Expect to See Renardo Sidney Suit Up for Mississippi State

Sure, Renardo Sidney was academically certified to attend Mississippi State. That's meaningless if the NCAA will not certify his amateur status to play basketball for the single season before he goes pro. At the moment he is not cleared and the NCAA does not even have to make an actual decision as to his eligibility since Sidney and his family will not turn over requested financial records.

The NCAA wants tax and bank records from the Sidney family to help explain how the family could move from Mississippi to Los Angeles and afford to rent multi-million dollar homes to reside. Especially considering that Sonny Vaccaro has stated that he gave the Sidney's $25,000 to make the move and Renardo Sidney's father became a consultant to a sneaker company for no real reason other than because he is Renardo Sidney's father.

The Sidney family's lawyer is screaming that he will fight and take this to court.

[Donald] Jackson's reaction: "The bottom line is, they are not going to get income tax returns or bank statements, and if this ultimately means that this case has to wind up in court, it will just have to wind up in court. Because their position is that they have the right, in effect, they don't have to establish the existence of violation, that the Sidney family has to establish the existence of non-violations, and that is not how every other case in their initial eligibility process originates."

Now if this had been even a year earlier, the NCAA probably would have backed down or never gotten to this point. The NCAA probably would not want to deal with the lawsuit.

The difference is that the NCAA whiffed horribly and publicly in the cases of O.J. Mayo and Derrick Rose. Both players were cleared by the NCAA to play at USC and Memphis respectively. Despite the warning signs, there was no smoking gun and the NCAA chose not look closely. After the players did their single season, much came out to show that they were not eligible. While it reflected worse on the schools for which they played and their lack of investigation, the NCAA also rubber-stamped their certification to play.

Sidney has already had plenty of red flags that have the attention of the NCAA and made it impossible to ignore. The NCAA has to see this through.

The lawsuit, if it actually happens, would start by seeking an injunction to let Sidney play. It would be likely that Mississippi State still would not play Sidney in the games. It would put those games at risk if the court eventually ruled in the NCAA's favor and made Sidney ineligible.

The Bulldogs will be a good team even without Sidney. They should make the NCAA Tournament and contend in the SEC. There is no way they would risk the season being voided by playing Sidney.