The Trinidad Chambliss saga all but made a joke out of the NCAA's enforcement arm.
'Selective enforcement' is something that the NCAA is used to getting accused of by now. And almost everyone thought Chambliss's inadequate medical documents, per the NCAA, were a situation somewhere along the same lines.
Instead, a state court verdict led to unveiling of things no one ever expected to hear: It wans't just the NCAA.
NCAA the only one to blame?
Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger shed light on how the calls are coming from inside the SEC house, and that the dysfunction is entrenched within the very member institutions that claim to lead the conference.
"As in many of these cases, the NCAA is made to be the bad guy here. Evil. Sinister," Dellenger wrote.
"But there is something important to remember: The NCAA is charged with enforcing rules and standards that are created by member schools. As it turns out, a committee of school administrators — not the NCAA staff — denied Chambliss’ waiver appeal."
"The root of the denial has gone mostly unreported, but here it is: Committee members requested to see practice logs from Chambliss’ 2022 season as a way to determine the severity of his illness. However, since 2022, Ferris State has switched operation systems that archive practice logs. The records were lost or were so difficult and costly enough to obtain that they never made it to the committee."
Does it matter, though, is the real question here.
Chambliss isn't the only one in the headlines fighting for a rightful year of eligibility. Diego Pavia and Joey Aguilar are in just as much.
"Since Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia successfully sued the NCAA in December of 2024, Chambliss is the 11th player to receive an injunction for extended eligibility in 55 lawsuits filed. In 34 of those cases, a judge ruled in favor of the NCAA in a preliminary judgement, or the case was voluntarily dismissed."
"About a dozen cases are still pending, including one coming Friday, when Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar and attorneys plan to argue for an eighth year of eligibility before, yes, a Tennessee judge," Dellenger further explained, showing just how bad the NCAA is stuck in a loop of its own making.
And it is a mess the NCAA will have to solve on its own, or remain stuck in it for the time being.
What matters is Chambliss's legal team pounced on the very inconsistencies in the investigation’s timeline and used it to convince the Mississippi judge to grant Chambliss his injunction.