The NCAA may yet do the right thing for Ben Stanley

So the news that's breaking goes a little something like this:

Obviously that's good news for Xavier. The Muskies are currently without Ben Stanley, who had his waiver denied for reasons beyond my comprehension, and Adam Kunkel, who is still having his waiver reviewed.

Anyone who has watched Xavier this year knows they could use a couple more players. While the Muskies are undefeated, they haven't always made it easy, and Stanley and Kunkel are both high-level ballers who could help out when things get sticky. With CJ Wilcher and Colby Jones (eventually) coming back out of Covid protocol, having Stanley and Kunkel ready to go would help those guys ease rather than jumping right into the rotation in potentially critical minutes.

Of course, it's batty to any reasonable human being that it has gotten to this point. The NCAA has known for a long time that the pandemic can disrupt things in a major way; look no further than the cancellation of March Madness (by the NCAA) for evidence of that. They have had ample time to prepare for this scenario. Every epidemiologist who could find a microphone or keyboard has been warning since the spring that there would be another spike in the fall. Nothing about the current situation should be a surprise to the NCAA.

So how can they now have to switch course and try to rush something through? If this is the right thing now, it was the right thing to weeks ago, before a single game had been played. That the NCAA would make a blatantly wrong decision before the season and then bail on it after a week shows how unprepared they are for the current reality. I'd say they should be embarrassed, but nothing I've seen has indicated to me that anyone in the organization is capable of feeling shame.