FreeLucca.com

Welcome to FreeLucca.com

Lucca Staiger, courtesy of Cyclones.com

Photo: Athletics Communications
www.cyclones.com

New announcement from the NCAA - Nov. 28 See below

This website was created in response to a decision by the NCAA that Lucca Staiger (left), a freshman basketball player at Iowa State University, is ineligible for the entire year. This decision stems from Lucca’s participation on the Ehingen Club team in his native Germany when he was only in high school. The NCAA Amateurism Certification Program, in its first year of existence, concluded that the Ehingen team was “professional” because two of the players on the team received benefits in excess of NCAA limits. Due solely to his participation on this team, the NCAA imposed the maximum penalty of one year’s loss in eligibility, even though Lucca did not personally receive any improper compensation. The same penalty was also levied on Lucca’s former teammate Fabian Boeke of Washington State University.

The truly sad thing is that Lucca tried to do everything in his power to ensure that he would be eligible to play college basketball in the United States. He made contact with the NCAA to check on eligibility guidelines, and chose the Ehingen Club team in part because he thought it would allow him to maintain his eligibility, and past players from the same club have not encountered any difficulty playing in the United States. Lucca also ensured that he never received any improper compensation.

How can you get involved?

Essentially, the NCAA imposed the maximum possible sentence on a kid who tried to do everything right and never received any improper personal benefits. Contrasting this penalty with those received by other individuals who knowingly broke well established rules shows the injustice of this decision.

We encourage you to visit the links to learn more about this situation. Among them is a link to Lucca’s media day interview, from which you can sense how the NCAA is hurting this young man.

If you believe as we do, we encourage you to make your voice heard. The first step is to add your name to the petition that is linked below. We also encourage you to contact the NCAA and let them know, in a reasonable fashion, what you think of the decision. We are also trying to get the media to pick up on this story. Let the media know that you would like to see this story covered. Some contact information is provided.

NCAA Statement - Nov. 28

The NCAA has stuck to its original ruling, and announced on November 28 that Lucca Staiger will be ineligible for the entire season. He will be able to start playing again next season, but will have only three years of eligibility remaining.

INDIANAPOLIS—The NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff has reinstated the eligibility of Iowa State University basketball student-athlete Lucca Staiger.

Staiger, a freshman at Iowa State, will be required to sit out the 2007-08 season of competition while being charged a season of eligibility, as a condition of his reinstatement for playing 82 games on a professional team in Germany prior to enrollment at the university. Staiger will have three seasons of remaining eligibility.

"While we realize Mr. Staiger may be disappointed in this decision, he still has the opportunity to pursue his dream of obtaining a college education in America, and he can still practice with the team and receive his full scholarship as he fulfills his conditions of reinstatement," said Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice-president for membership services. "In addition, he will still be able to play for three full seasons following this academic year."

The NCAA has longstanding amateurism rules established by its member institutions. The student-athlete reinstatement staff considered all factors presented by Iowa State University in its review of this situation. After careful consideration of the student-athlete’s participation on a professional team, the reinstatement staff applied the standard guideline for eligibility, similar to another amateurism certification decision involving this particular international team.

During the reinstatement process, the NCAA reinstatement staff considers a number of factors including guidelines established by the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, any relevant case precedent, the student-athlete’s responsibility for the violation, as well as any mitigating factors presented by the university.

The university can appeal the decision to the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, an independent committee comprised of representatives from NCAA member colleges, universities and athletic conferences.

Iowa State quickly issued a press release in response, in which Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard commented on ISU's intent to pursue all remaining avenues of appeal.

AMES, Iowa—Iowa State freshman men’s basketball player Lucca Staiger will miss the entire 2007-08 season and lose a year of eligibility the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff announced Wednesday.

Staiger’s penalties were the result of his participation on a German professional team – in which several teammates, but not Staiger, received stipends deemed by the NCAA to be above actual and necessary expenses – prior to his enrollment at Iowa State. The Iowa State University Athletics Department will appeal this decision to the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee.

"We are very disappointed to learn today that the NCAA’s student-athlete reinstatement staff has upheld the one-year suspension for Lucca Staiger," Iowa State Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard said. "We had hoped that the NCAA staff would share our belief that the right thing to do in this particular case was to set aside precedent and do what is in the best interest of the student-athlete. Unfortunately, they do not share our sentiment."

With this decision, the NCAA has reinstated Staiger’s eligibility (making him certified for competition), but the loss of a year of competition was a condition for that reinstatement. The reinstatement staff considered case precedence, student-athlete responsibility and mitigating factors presented by the school when ruling.

"We have notified the NCAA staff that we wish to exhaust all available options in an attempt to restore Lucca’s eligibility for this year," Pollard added. "Our only remaining option is to appeal Lucca’s case to the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which is comprised of other administrators from peer institutions. We hope that our peers will share our belief that the right thing to do is set aside precedent and restore Lucca’s eligibility for the remainder of the year."

"Staiger may continue to practice and participate in all Iowa State men’s basketball team activities except for game action this year. Staiger played his senior year of high school basketball at Decatur (Ill.) Christian and averaged 13 points per game. His 2005 prep team won the German High School Championships with the help of his 24.2 scoring average."

Iowa State can, and almost certainly will, appeal this decision. (It will even be a real "appeal" this time). The appeal will be heard by the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which is composed of representatives of member schools and conferences. There is still hope that they will be more reasonable than the NCAA reinstatement staff.

The ironic tone of the press release should be noted. It says that the NCAA “reinstated” Lucca’s eligibility. Make no mistake though, the oh-so-benevolent NCAA did not give Lucca a thing, but instead took from him a year of eligibility.

NCAA Statement - Nov. 11

On Thursday, Nov. 8, the NCAA responded to media reports and numerous e-mails, phone calls, and faxes from concerned fans regarding Lucca's ineligibility with a press release, which was also sent as a reply to anyone who had e-mailed NCAA President Myles Brand regarding Lucca’s situation. The response appears to contradict previous accounts of the situation.

Recent media reports from the Des Moines Register and other outlets regarding the initial eligibility of Iowa State freshman Lucca Staiger are inaccurate.

In these press reports, it has been stated that Iowa State has filed an appeal with the NCAA regarding this student-athlete. This is not accurate. In fact, the NCAA did not receive the facts of the case from the school until yesterday (Tuesday, November 6). The NCAA is now reviewing these facts and has not yet issued a decision. Thus, an appeal has not been filed.

The NCAA has a longstanding rule regarding what constitutes a professional team. A student-athlete cannot compete on a professional team without a potential impact to his or her athletic eligibility at the collegiate level. It is well known among our member colleges and universities that if one person on a team is paid for the athletic performance, the entire team is considered a professional team.

The NCAA will consider the individual circumstances of this case—as it does with all initial eligibility cases—when considering if or how the student-athlete’s eligibility should be impacted.

Later that evening, Iowa State University Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard issued the following statement in response to the NCAA's announcement:

We were surprised and disappointed to learn that the NCAA released a statement challenging press reports on the eligibility status of Lucca Staiger without our knowledge. The NCAA has been aware of Lucca’s (amateur status) situation since May of 2007 and has been working with Iowa State University for the past six months to resolve the situation.

Iowa State submitted an initial statement of facts on this case to the NCAA, and two subsequent updates to that statement, in September and October of 2007. A final statement was submitted Monday (Nov. 5).

At this point, with our regular season to open Friday, Lucca has not been certified eligible (by the NCAA) to compete. If Iowa State allowed him to compete without being certified by the NCAA, it would result in an NCAA rules violation.

Our hope is that this situation is resolved in the very near future so that everyone can move forward. The Iowa State University Athletics Department will have no further comment on this situation until it receives final resolution from the NCAA.

Our Take

This statement by the NCAA is likely to be technically correct, although it is rather misleading. This is made possible by the use of rather technical language on the part of the NCAA.

The NCAA seemingly has not issued one of its official "decisions" in the sense in which they are using that term. Therefore, because an "appeal" can only be made in response to a "decision," ISU has also not filed an appeal.

These facts remain clear, however:

  1. Due to some sort of determination (be it a ruling, finding, etc.) on the part of the NCAA, Lucca Staiger is considered to have lost his eligibility for this season. If ISU were to play Lucca in a game it would be in violation of NCAA rules.
  2. On Nov. 6, the NCAA received something from ISU seeking to have that determination changed so as to make Lucca eligible this season.

Therefore, if someone is speaking in layman’s terms rather than technical terms, it makes sense to say that Lucca lost a year of eligibility due to a decision by the NCAA, and that ISU has appealed that decision.

The fact that the NCAA has decided to play with semantics and contend that no "decision" has been made does nothing to change the manifest injustice of Lucca’s situation.