Three Europeans, One NCAA Rulebook and Absolutely No Idea Who Can Play

San Diego State went shopping overseas. Now Brian Dutcher has to hope the NCAA does not lose the receipt.

San Diego State entered the offseason with the same problem facing nearly every successful program outside college basketball’s wealthiest tier: develop good players, win games, watch richer schools arrive with a bag of money and then rebuild the roster before November.

Brian Dutcher and his staff responded by attacking a different market. Instead of spending the entire spring fighting over the same American transfer-portal players, SDSU added three experienced European prospects: Croatian forward Luka Skorić and Italian teammates-in-spirit David Torresani and Luca Vincini.

It was smart, creative and exactly the type of roster-building strategy San Diego State should pursue.

There is just one small issue.

Nobody appears completely certain whether the NCAA will actually let all three play.

Welcome Back to “What Does Amateurism Mean This Week?”

The basic eligibility issue is not that Skorić, Torresani and Vincini competed against professionals. Plenty of international recruits have been cleared after playing for professional clubs. The real question is how much each player was paid and whether that compensation exceeded what the NCAA considers “actual and necessary expenses.”

That phrase is doing a lot of work.

European basketball teams can employ highly paid American veterans, established domestic stars and teenage prospects on developmental contracts—all on the same roster. Simply saying someone played in a professional league does not tell us exactly what he earned or how the NCAA will view his situation.

The NCAA also adopted a new age-based eligibility model that should help older international players. Instead of automatically punishing athletes for delaying college while playing overseas, the new system gives incoming players a five-year window based largely on age. For athletes arriving in 2026–27, schools can use whichever calculation—the previous rules or the new system—is more favorable.

That change is important for Skorić and Vincini, both of whom are older than the typical American freshman. Their age alone probably will not eliminate them.

The bigger question is still money.

David Torresani: The Safest Bet

If the NCAA handed me all three files and forced me to bet one carne asada burrito on who gets cleared first, I am choosing Torresani.

The 6-foot-2 guard spent several seasons with Treviso in Italy’s top division and played in 22 games last season, averaging seven points while shooting nearly 38% from three. That is legitimate professional experience. Nobody is arguing that Torresani spent the last four years playing pickup basketball behind a Milanese Olive Garden.

However, Torresani is also the youngest of SDSU’s three European additions. He developed inside Treviso’s system as a young prospect rather than establishing himself as a veteran professional earning veteran-professional money.

That distinction could matter. The NCAA will likely want contracts, payment records and information about what Treviso covered. Housing, meals, transportation and training expenses are one thing. A salary significantly beyond those expenses is another.

Torresani signed what Treviso described as his first multiyear professional contract in 2023, so his case is not completely clean. Still, his age and developmental role give SDSU a reasonable argument that his compensation was limited compared with established players in Italy’s top league.

Prediction: Eligible. He appears to have the cleanest path of the three.

Luka Skorić: The International Man of Mystery

Skorić’s situation is harder to predict, mainly because less is publicly known about his compensation.

The 6-foot-9 Croatian played for Cibona, one of the most recognizable clubs in the region. Last season he appeared in 34 games across Croatia’s domestic competition and the FIBA Europe Cup, averaging 6.1 points and three rebounds while shooting better than 36% from three.

He is also 23 and has competed at the senior level for multiple seasons. Under the NCAA’s previous delayed-enrollment rules, that résumé could have created a compliance headache large enough to receive its own office.

The new age-based model gives him a better path. Based on his age, the 2026–27 season appears likely to fall inside his five-year eligibility window, although it may represent his final available season. That calculation could change if there are previously unknown enrollment details, but age itself no longer looks like the biggest threat.

Once again, compensation becomes the deciding factor. Croatia’s domestic basketball economy is not generally viewed the same way as Italy’s top division or Europe’s wealthiest competitions. If Skorić received relatively modest compensation while playing and living in Croatia, SDSU may have a strong reinstatement case.

If he received a substantial salary for several seasons, things become more complicated.

That uncertainty makes Skorić difficult to rank. He has more senior experience than Torresani, but he did not spend the past two seasons in the same high-profile Italian setting as Vincini.

Prediction: Slight lean toward eligible, probably for one season. Keep the antacids nearby.

Luca Vincini: The One That Makes Compliance Lock the Door

Vincini is the most complicated case, and it is not particularly close.

SDSU’s announcement described the 6-foot-9 forward as a six-year European professional with nearly 200 appearances when domestic and international competitions are combined. He most recently played for Dinamo Sassari in Italy’s top Serie A division after signing a multiyear contract with the club.

That is not a teenage prospect who happened to sit at the end of a professional bench. That is a full résumé.

To be clear, professional experience does not automatically make Vincini ineligible. The NCAA has recently cleared international players with significant European backgrounds, which is one reason programs became increasingly aggressive about recruiting from overseas.

But among SDSU’s three cases, Vincini has the longest professional career, the most senior-level appearances and the clearest connection to a league with established professional salary structures. The NCAA will likely examine how much he was paid, how long he received compensation and whether his contract provided more than legitimate expenses.

The new age rule may preserve a season for him. It does not erase six years of professional paperwork.

Vincini can still be cleared, especially if his compensation was relatively low during much of his developmental career. But his file probably contains the most translated contracts, the most follow-up questions and the greatest chance of ruining a compliance officer’s weekend.

Prediction: A true toss-up. He carries the highest risk of being ruled ineligible or having his available eligibility reduced.

The Completely Unofficial Eligibility Power Ranking

The safest order appears to be Torresani, Skorić and then Vincini.

My overall prediction is that Torresani gets cleared, Skorić eventually gets cleared for one season and Vincini’s case goes deepest into the NCAA maze. All three becoming eligible remains a realistic outcome, particularly because schools recruited many international players while NCAA policy was still shifting beneath their feet.

And let’s appreciate the absurdity of the situation. College basketball players can now receive revenue-sharing payments and major NIL deals, but the NCAA may still rule that an international player earned too much money before arriving in the United States.

Nothing says modern amateurism quite like asking a 23-year-old European professional to prove he was not compensated professionally enough.

For now, Dutcher has three international additions, three pending questions and one offseason prayer:

Please let the NCAA decide this before the first exhibition game.