In an interview with Sports Illustrated writer Seth Davis, NCAA President Mark Emmert discussed the decision to rule Enes Kanter permanently ineligible. Here are his comments:

“The facts are utterly unambiguous, the rule is utterly unambiguous, and the intention of the membership is utterly unambiguous. The vast majority of people in collegiate basketball knew that this was an issue with Enes Kanter. Kentucky knew it. Everybody who talked with him knew it. So I’m amazed that people are shocked by the fact that he is ineligible.”

“They are all very different cases with very different facts. You mentioned Selby. Here was an individual who took somewhere over $5,000 worth of impermissible benefits. It wasn’t from a professional team. It was from a third party. That wasn’t a violation of our rules regarding professional athletics.”

“I can’t describe what a good-faith effort is. I don’t know the young man or his family. If their intention all along was to have him come play in the United States, then it would simply have been a matter of not accepting pay. We’ve seen a threefold increase in the number of international athletes coming to college, so it’s not right to say the environment is not conducive for them to come here and play. They simply have to not do it for money.”

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“Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s ridiculous. By all accounts this is a very talented basketball player, but yet there were very few schools recruiting him. Why was that? Because everyone understood that there was a very large probability that he was not going to be deemed eligible. This has nothing to do with Kentucky or Coach Calipari. It has to do with a clear rule and a clear set of facts.”