Not sure how I feel about this. Degfae is essentially benefiting from the NCAA officials' mistake. If the rules are followed, he does not run the 5k and does not go to Eugene. Ignorance is not an excuse.
I guess letting the Harvard kid run makes it okay - he should not be left out because the officials made a mistake and let Degfae run the 5k.
At the end of the day, Degfae just got really lucky the officials let him slip onto the start line. Intentional or not, he pulled one over on the NCAA. I guess that kind of stuff happens in sports all the time. So it goes.
By the way, the "with no contact" part is completely irrelevant to the real issues here. Why even say that in the title? To me, it makes it evident that the OP was willing to say anything to convince readers Degfae was wronged.
I really really hope that this was an objective decision not compelled by emotional appeals like those presented in the original thread. I'm fine with the NCAA rectifying their mistake, but the reasons to reinstate him presented in that thread were not compelling to me.