NCAA Rules Braxton Beverly Immediately Eligible To Play For NC State

Four-star freshman point guard Braxton Beverly has spent the past month in basketball purgatory, but today, the NCAA did something reasonably logical for once when it reversed its initial ruling and made Beverly immediately eligible to play for NC State.

Beverly originally committed to play at Ohio State, a program that’s fallen off a cliff in the past few years. When longtime head coach Thad Matta walked away from the school this summer, the move screwed over Beverly, who had already started taking classes at OSU (which is normal for many top recruits). Because of the NCAA’s extremely restrictive transfer rules, those classes kept Beverly tied to the Buckeyes after Matta left, and even though he never played a game, the NCAA was initially going to force him to sit out the season when he transferred to NC State, like all standard (non-coach) transfers have to do.

Beverly’s initial appeal for a waiver was denied, and he had to miss NC State’s opening two games. But “based on additional information,” the NCAA reconsidered and made the smart, obvious decision. Beverly is expected to debut tonight in the Wolfpack’s game against Bryant.