STARKVILLE — Despite strong objections by Mississippi State, the NCAA released the rationale for its suspension of forward Kristers Zeidaks for this season and 11 games next season.

NCAA Eligibility Center ruled Nov. 3, Zeidaks, who is from Latvia, will be suspended for this season and 11 games next season for participating in a league that saw him play with and against professional players in his home country. 

Zeidaks is allowed to practice with the Bulldogs and travel with the team on road games. He also will continue to receive financial aid from the university.

According to information released Monday by MSU officials to The Dispatch, the NCAA Eligibility Center ruled the three registration forms Zeidaks signed to play for his Latvian team, Barons/LMT Riga club, and the $240 he received in necessary compensation expenses violated NCAA rules on players signing an agreement to play professionally in any capacity. 

“NCAA Bylaw 12.1.2-(c) states an individual will lose amateur status if he or she ‘signs a contract or commitment of any kind to play professional athletics,” NCAA Associate Director of Academic and Membership Affairs Jennifer Daniels stated in an email. 

The disagreement between the NCAA Eligibility Center and MSU in the documentation centers on the definition of a contract and the number of times the 6-foot-8 forward participated against professional players.

New NCAA eligibility rules have essentially done away with what some call “vicarious” or “collective” professionalism, where a prospect would be withheld because he or she played with professionals, even if there was no payment above “actual or necessary” expenses. However, the NCAA used the old rules in the Zeidaks case because he began signing the registration forms in 2006. 

“We are incredibly disappointed by the NCAA’s ruling regarding Kris,” MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said.

MSU (11-1) is ranked 18th in the latest Associated Press poll and will face Northwestern State on Thursday at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. 

According to the appeal sent to the NCAA Division I Legislative Review and Interpretations Committee, MSU compliance ‘respectfully disagrees with the interpretation that registration sheet constitutes an agreement’, according to the bylaw cited by Daniels. MSU also argued that on the registration form Zeidaks signed with Barons/LMT of the Latvian Basketball League was blank because he didn’t have a contract with the club. 

“One of my distant dreams has been to attend an American university and play college basketball,” Zeidaks wrote in an appeal letter to the NCAA. “I did not know anything about NCAA academic requirements when I graduated high school and spent a year at the university in Riga, but I did know that I must totally preserve my amateurism status.”

In the evidence acquired by The Dispatch Monday and presented to the NCAA Division I Legislation, MSU officials sent a copy of a legal contract between a player and the Barons/LMT club team to signify the difference between the registration forms he signed between 2006-08 and a contract he and his family did not agree to while he played in his home country. 

The NCAA responded by saying “had Mr. Zeidaks signed the standard professional player contract, the prescribed penalty would have been permanent ineligibility” meaning Zeidaks would’ve never been allowed to play college basketball at any point for any school. 

MSU’s unsuccessfully argued Zeidaks had minimal participation in games against professional players in Latvia. MSU Compliance Director Bracky Brett described that “as minimal at best” in his mitigating factors statement to the NCAA, saying Zeidaks played 16 minutes against professional players in 14 games in the two leagues. 

“Kristers was one of the best players on the (Lativan) Under-20 team and his participation with the Barons was considered, as he has told the NCAA staff, to be a reward for doing well on the U-20 team,” Brett said in his university statement.

n In other MSU men’s basketball news, senior point guard Dee Bost is a finalist for the 2012 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year.

Bost is third in the Southeastern Conference this season in scoring (18 points per game). He leads the league in steals (28) and assists (54).

At MSU, he’s 15th all-time in scoring with 1,336 points, while his 504 assists are second and just 11 shy of the school record.

The list of candidates will be narrowed to a final 20 by Jan. 1, final 10 by Feb. 1, and final five by March 1. The winner of the 2012 Bob Cousy Award will be presented at the Hall of Fame’s Class Announcement on Championship Monday in New Orleans as part of NCAA Final Four weekend.

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.