UNC Men’s Basketball 2025-2026

[PTOHeel]

Count me as one of the folks who don't get how all of this works. UNC has enough information to admit him. The NCAA has enough information to rule him eligible to play. But there is not enough information for UNC to separately rule him eligible to play. The last part is the part I don't understand the inner workings of.

 

[Ramrouser]

Me too. It seems like any issues with classes for an international transfer student would have been raised at the time of the enrollment decision. Why in the world would allowing or disallowing him credits for international classes have anything to do with him being eligible to play NCAA basketball?

 

[Calheel]

Me too. It seems like any issues with classes for an international transfer student would have been raised at the time of the enrollment decision. Why in the world would allowing or disallowing him credits for international classes have anything to do with him being eligible to play NCAA basketball?

As best as I can understand it, which is limited, is that he needs to be certified to be on track to graduate during the semester by UNC. That is a separate "eligibility" question than the NCAA and admission. Every athlete is certified by UNC during the season as being on track, we just never hear about it because it is a formality in most cases.

With Luka, we have apparently put him in a certain academic situation that may or may not be correct based on his prior classes. Depending upon whether those classes count or not could apparently impact whether he is on the correct path right now or not, and hence whether he is eligible.

What I don't understand is why there couldn't be some sort of "we will figure this out later" ruling given the unique situation Luka is in. Our compliance department has been poor -- the Tez Walker paperwork situation being the worst example of this -- and I suspect this may be an example of someone requiring boxes to be checked.

My best guess is that the box checker will be overruled if the Montenegro paperwork never arrives and that we will just make some exceptions for this case. But it is UNC so who knows.

 

[donbosco]

I'm referring back to a post that I made a few days ago about this...

UNC Sports Post in thread 'UNC Men’s Basketball 2025-2026'

Oct 23, 2025

Re: Luka Bogavac's eligibility. Academia works in mysterious ways but more than in anything, in mysterious timetables. I suspect that there is a final hoop in his full instatement...he's already taking classes, the NCAA doesn't care about previous professional play, so I'm imagining that there is a committee that needs to meet to put the final stamp of approval on his admissability as an incoming foreign student. There is a high likelihood that said committee hasn't had its October or 2nd time in the semester or whatever gathering and the academicians (who can be a very stubborn lot and...

• donbosco

• 

 

[Enigma94]

The biggest question to me is when was this brought to his attention as needing to be figured out? If it just came up in the last month, which seems to be the case since Luka played in an earlier exhibition, then it's complete BS. I can see Luka's camp thinking why would this come up now after he's been with the team and taking classes for months?

 

[stankeylegjones]

As best as I can understand it, which is limited, is that he needs to be certified to be on track to graduate during the semester by UNC. That is a separate "eligibility" question than the NCAA and admission. Every athlete is certified by UNC during the season as being on track, we just never hear about it because it is a formality in most cases.

With Luka, we have apparently put him in a certain academic situation that may or may not be correct based on his prior classes. Depending upon whether those classes count or not could apparently impact whether he is on the correct path right now or not, and hence whether he is eligible.

What I don't understand is why there couldn't be some sort of "we will figure this out later" ruling given the unique situation Luka is in. Our compliance department has been poor -- the Tez Walker paperwork situation being the worst example of this -- and I suspect this may be an example of someone requiring boxes to be checked.

My best guess is that the box checker will be overruled if the Montenegro paperwork never arrives and that we will just make some exceptions for this case. But it is UNC so who knows.

We do (kind of) hear about it via the APR scores, right?

 

[donbosco]

The problem could be on the "other end" -- i.e., the school that Bogavac attended in Europe may be slow in providing syllabi or just cooperating in general.

 

[SnoopRob]

What I don't understand is why there couldn't be some sort of "we will figure this out later" ruling given the unique situation Luka is in. Our compliance department has been poor -- the Tez Walker paperwork situation being the worst example of this -- and I suspect this may be an example of someone requiring boxes to be checked.

I think the reason we "can't figure this out later" is because the NCAA requires this certification to be eligible as a student-athlete and if we play him without certifying his eligibility then we're guilty of intentionally playing an ineligible player.

The NCAA is going to expect the university to (a) treat Luka as they would any other transfer student from Montenegro/Serbia/the Balkans and to (b) certify his on-going eligibility the way they would any other student athlete based on his academic standing. I'm positive that the University has procedures for academically classifying a transfer student such as Luka and is currently following those procedures plus trying to ensure NCAA-related compliance efforts that directly relate his academic standing as a transfer student.

 

[SnoopRob]

The problem could be on the "other end" -- i.e., the school that Bogavac attended in Europe may be slow in providing syllabi or just cooperating in general.

I suspect this is the biggest part of the problem and that we've tried to rely on Luka's folks to bridge the gap in a way that has (apparently) not worked.

What I don't really grasp is that this should have been known as a potential problem as soon as UNC knew he had taken college classes in Serbia and why "extreme measures" haven't been taken to get the needed info already.

 

[Geisterfahrer]

I still don’t get how the admin could need this level of info yet admitted him.

 

[SnoopRob]

The biggest question to me is when was this brought to his attention as needing to be figured out? If it just came up in the last month, which seems to be the case since Luka played in an earlier exhibition, then it's complete BS. I can see Luka's camp thinking why would this come up now after he's been with the team and taking classes for months?

Luka could play in the intrasquad scrimmage in Cherokee because it's classified by the NCAA as a "practice" and he's able to practice within his current level of eligibility.

He can't play in the exhibitions/games against other teams because NCAA rules prohibit that until he's fully cleared by the university with regard to on-going eligibilty.

 

[SnoopRob]

I still don’t get how the admin could need this level of info yet admitted him.

They had enough information to clear that he was able to be admitted to the University but not enough to determine how his previous credits transfer (e.g. count as general hours or count for specific credits at Carolina); the latter is the apparent hold up here.

 

[Calheel]

I think the reason we "can't figure this out later" is because the NCAA requires this certification to be eligible as a student-athlete and if we play him without certifying his eligibility then we're guilty of intentionally playing an ineligible player.

The NCAA is going to expect the university to (a) treat Luka as they would any other transfer student from Montenegro/Serbia/the Balkans and to (b) certify his on-going eligibility the way they would any other student athlete based on his academic standing. I'm positive that the University has procedures for academically classifying a transfer student such as Luka and is currently following those procedures plus trying to ensure NCAA-related compliance efforts that directly relate his academic standing as a transfer student.

Right. We certify him and figure it out later. Given that some schools have tutors taking online classes for their athletes, I don’t think it is asking too much of UNC to let one of its highest paid employees do his job.

 

[mpaer]

I don’t think it is asking too much of UNC to let one of its highest paid employees do his job.

Hilarious-kind of sad-but very true

 

[Oddball]

I feel like we are in a college sports world where even the 30 to 35 yr olds are fully Abe Simpson -- "back in my day..."

Bill Friday has to be fuming in his grave

 

[Geisterfahrer]

They had enough information to clear that he was able to be admitted to the University but not enough to determine how his previous credits transfer (e.g. count as general hours or count for specific credits at Carolina); the latter is the apparent hold up here.

That seems like a distinction without a difference to me.

 

[C-Money]

They had enough information to clear that he was able to be admitted to the University but not enough to determine how his previous credits transfer (e.g. count as general hours or count for specific credits at Carolina); the latter is the apparent hold up here.

Seems like a dumb reason to keep him from playing. If he was admitted then he should be able to play. I don't understand why the number of specific credits he already had that can transfer would keep him from playing.

 

[Enigma94]

Luka could play in the intrasquad scrimmage in Cherokee because it's classified by the NCAA as a "practice" and he's able to practice within his current level of eligibility.

He can't play in the exhibitions/games against other teams because NCAA rules prohibit that until he's fully cleared by the university with regard to on-going eligibilty.

So just call him a freshman and if information is provided that changes that in the future then make the decision then. But I don’t see any reason he can’t just classify as a frosh and play for the time being. These games don’t count but they are important for building team chemistry.

 

[SnoopRob]

So just call him a freshman and if information is provided that changes that in the future then make the decision then. But I don’t see any reason he can’t just classify as a frosh and play for the time being. These games don’t count but they are important for building team chemistry.

The NCAA expects the school to follow its already-established procedures regarding transfer students and not to "just call him a freshman" while we figure things out and then make it right.

My hunch is that such a course of action would end up with us receiving penalties from the NCAA.

 

[Centerpiece]

Who hired Bill Bellycheck? That's who is behind the Luka fiasco.
Luka should already be on a plane back to Europe getting ready to suit up for another pro team.
If he is not... that means his NIL money is already in the bank and he's making time with your daughter on campus. Or your granddaughter - depending on your age.