[Fletch]

Turns out the only reason Crawford came back is so he could retain his eligibility. You see, when Crawford agreed to play he signed a National Letter of Intent. The NLI states that if a player doesn't finish his freshman season, he loses a year of eligibility unless his school waives that penalty. UK did not waive the penalty and therefore, pretty much forced Crawford to stay.

Yeah. That was pretty much mentioned during the entire week between him leaving the team and getting reinstated. No D-1 school has ever waived the eligibility from signing the LOI.