My gut feeling all along has been that the NCAA saw us as the ideal victim for their sham demonstration, showing the world they are serious about academics and that they are not afraid to come down hard on name schools (biggest joke ever).
I believe that they recently became aware of the fact that the new rule will punish a number of schools that they really don't care about one way or the other (traditional primarily black schools) and realized that the press generated by banning a significant number of these schools would create quite a bit if bad press for the NCAA and quite possibly put enough momentum behind complaints to start a public outcry, forcing them to scrap the new rule. The meeting (which led to this) was to find a way to avoid the above dilemma, the possibility of not enforcing the rules across the board was not intended to be made public this early.
It is my belief (nothing more than a gut feeling) that at some point further down the road (after we've been as completely gutted as possible) the announcement would have been made that in deference to the plight of the traditional black colleges, they will not enforce the rule (and in the process paint a picture of UConn being an undeserving beneficiary of the NCAA's benevolence). The tone of the revised statement makes it pretty clear to me that they realize the genie is out of the bottle, so now the rhetoric needs to paint UConn as the advantaged cheater looking for a pass ity doesn't deserve. The NCAA is painting a picture where if we do protest (or even apply for consideration) it will be akin to a multi-millionaire asking for food stamps.
My guess is that we will eventually be allowed in to the 2013 tournament but the NCAA will try to pile a load of dung on our reputation over the next few months before relenting.
