Saint Louis filled all 15 of its basketball roster spots, opted into a binding federal settlement twice, and now wants a hometown judge to give them an illegal 16th slot because cutting a benchwarmer feels mean.
Look at the circus unfolding around Robbie Avila right now. On Thursday, St. Louis City Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser, a proud Saint Louis University alum, granted the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year a preliminary injunction for a fifth season of eligibility and ordered an exception allowing the Billikens to carry a 16th player. By Friday, the College Sports Commission slammed the door in their faces before tipoff against Missouri. Avila sat on the bench in street clothes while his teammates beat the Tigers 90-84 without him.
Everybody in college basketball media is crying about bureaucrats ruining the fun and keeping a cult hero in goggles off the floor. Miss me with the tears. The CSC did not nerf Robbie Avila; Josh Schertz and the Saint Louis front office cooked their own star by hoarding 15 roster spots while praying a local judge would let them cheat the math of the House v. NCAA settlement.
The CSC Exposed Saint Louis’s Roster Greed
You cannot spend months begging for a seat at the big-boy revenue-sharing table and then act shocked when the check comes due. Look at what the College Sports Commission actually put in writing on Friday.
“Saint Louis University was not required to opt into the House settlement. In choosing to do so, twice, it chose to be subject to the rules governing revenue sharing and roster limits. The men’s basketball roster limit is 15, according to the explicit terms of the settlement. Saint Louis was not required to fill its roster to the maximum, but it chose to do so, leaving no open slots for an additional player. A school that is subject to the terms of the settlement does not get to disregard those terms.” — College Sports Commission statement, via Hoops HQ
That statement is a tactical nuke, and I love every syllable of it. My stance is simple: if Avila is the centerpiece of your program, you hold Spot 15 open for him while his lawsuit works through the courts, or you cut the 15th guy on your bench the second the judge bangs his gavel. Instead, Saint Louis tried to have it both ways. They wanted the revenue-sharing perks of the federal House settlement while using a Missouri state court to grant them a 16-man roster advantage that nobody else in Division I gets to use.
Judge Sengheiser actually tried to wave the math away from the bench. “The Court still believes adding a spot to the roster for Plaintiff does not come close to offending any notion of fairness. Teams can still only play five players at a time. It would be a far greater injustice to exclude Plaintiff under the facts of this case. Thus, the Court finds that to do complete justice here, an exception to the roster limit is required.” — Judge Jason Sengheiser, via the Columbia Missourian and St. Louis Post-Dispatch
With all due respect to Your Honor, saying roster limits do not matter because only five guys play at once is zero-aura legal reasoning. In a post-House landscape, practice depth, injury insurance, and developmental stashes are hard currency capped at 15 across the board. If a state circuit judge in St. Louis can hand his alma mater a 16th spot for a 23-year-old graduate student, what stops a booster-friendly judge in Lexington or Lawrence from granting 20 roster spots tomorrow?
Why Schertz Cannot Afford To Leave His 99-Overall Stretch Five In Street Clothes
I get why Saint Louis is desperate to bend the bylaws into a pretzel. On the court, Avila is an offensive cheat code who turns Schertz’s five-out system into a track meet.
Last season, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound center averaged 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.1 assists while shooting 41% from three-point range on 4.6 attempts per game. After dropping a game-winner in January, Avila delivered the coldest line of the winter: “This is what I do. Let’s go home.” — Robbie Avila, via Isaac Trotter on X (January 28, 2026)
He backs that swagger up with terrifying geometry. Because Avila forces opposing centers to guard him far from the basket, the paint cracks wide open. Last year, Saint Louis ranked second nationally in effective field goal percentage, took 45% of its shots at the rim, and converted a ridiculous 63% of those layups and dunks whenever Avila was on the floor. Add his 233 combined three-pointers alongside returning snipers Trey Green and Ishan Sharma, and you see why Oklahoma State and other high-major programs were reportedly sniffing around Avila with offers in the $500,000 to $1 million range, per his testimony reported by the Columbia Missourian.
Yes, the Billikens survived Missouri on Friday without him by catching fire and hitting 14-of-25 from deep, with Sharma and Amari McCottry dropping 17 points apiece. Do not let one hot shooting night fool you into thinking they can cruise through March without their hub. When conference play hits and VCU starts crowding the arc, Saint Louis will need the guy who draws shot-blockers out of the lane and picks apart backdoor cuts.
Right now, the CSC has made one thing crystal clear. “Mr. Avila may be eligible to play college basketball this season, but there is no roster slot available for him at Saint Louis University.” — College Sports Commission statement, via CBS Sports
I have zero sympathy for the suits at Saint Louis pretending their hands are tied while Northern Kentucky waits next on the schedule. Which bottom-of-the-bench scholarship player does Josh Schertz lack the spine to cut so his star can actually put a jersey on?
