The NCAA Double Standard

but a few things

I’m not quite sure what the NCAA is trying to prove by saying that the whole school, especially the number one source of income, should be penalized with such a severe penalty. Once the coaches found out about the cheating scandal that covered almost every sport, players were suspended, kicked off the team, and shown that their actions were unacceptable. The coaching staffs did not condone cheating in any way, shape or form. Thus, should the program have wins taken away?

The NCAA out in the “coaches must foster a culture of compliance” rule after the Kelvin Sampson stuff.

Additionally, what’s the harm in taking the wins? Bowden wasn’t catching Paterno anyways; Penn State’s schedule is a lot easier than ours and we already trail. Plus, the defensive side of the ball is decaying, not even stagnating.

Reggie and USC should be punished, we agree, but it’s not that the NCAA doesn’t WANT to punish USC, but rather that they don’t have the resources (no subpoena power, etc), since USC is a private institution.

I added you on facebook and can share something there that I’m not yet comfortable broadcasting.

On one hand, I want to see Bowden retire in the worst way and I feel that vacating wins is probably great incentive for him to GTFO. On the other hand, I’m sick of listening to the same people who lauded us – to paraphrase them – for hammering ourselves with ridiculously harsh, self-imposed sanctions months ago now piss and moan that we shouldn’t be appealing any portion of the NCAA decision. I wouldn’t mind having those wins restored and serving them a nice warm cup of ‘shut the hell up.’

Now, I’m not going to pretend I know my head from my ass when it comes to the ways of the NCAA and how they operate. So, could someone answer this for me: If TK successfully appeals the vacated wins portion of the ruling, could the NCAA then turn around and say, “OK. Fine. But, remember when we said that if we didn’t make you vacate wins we would have given you a further reduction in scholarships instead? Guess what? That’s going to happen now.” Because if that happens, I’m totally rounding up all of the villagers, torches, and pitch forks that I can find.

The only wins you hear about are the football wins. This affects the Track championships, too…

(emphasis added)

Did Reggie Bush not receive benefits from USC? Doesn’t everyone? Shouldn’t USC be under the same gun that FSU is? Wins should be taken away from a program that knowingly had a paid athlete on the team. Last time I checked this wasn’t the NFL, I’m looking at you Mr. Bush with that nice house you gave your mother in college!

Can you show me ANY evidence of USC paying Reggie Bush?

I have no doubt Reggie took the money but there is no evidence that it came from USC, or its boosters. Was Pete Carroll lax in allowing those whose are connected to this access to the players on school property, yes, but that is hardly the same thing as USC paying Reggie bush.

Go read the Yahoo stuff written about this…nowhere does it that SC is alleged to have paid Bush. The only hint of a smoking gun( ie did SC know) is that it is alleged that RB coach Todd McNair may have known but that has never been proven.

I sympathize with your position in this post…but you are way off base in regards to Bush. Using the OJ Mayo mess would have given your argument more credibility because The person accused of giving Mayo money had a history of doing it in the past where it directly affected the eligibility of a USC basketball player. That person was also alleged to had free rein of the USC basketball offices…simply stated Guillory was a known bad apple and he never should have been allowed on campus or in the Galen Center.

SC will and should take a hit in regards to basketball…football is another matter because there no evidence that the school was involved…could they take a hit? Sure, but it will be tough for the NCAA to sanction SC hard just because they should have known about something that happened 100 miles away in San Diego. I know of no D-1 school (public or private) that operates its own intelligence arm to check on the financial status of all its players families or direct relatives, nor should they.

Nor were the NCAA sanctions imposed out of line, extreme or inconsistent historically with what the Association has done when academic fraud has occurred.

Searching the NCAA IDB shows the Association has consistently vacated the contests of institutions involving ineligible athletes due to academic fraud. Also of note, is that the NCAA Appeals Comm. has consistently upheld the Infractions Committee’s decision when appeals to reinstate contests vacated due to academic fraud have been attempted by institutions involved.

As far as Coach Bowden is concerned in this…

I feel it is a shame that his run for the wins record may/will be ended with this penalty given what appears to be his significant lack of involvement these days in the program as a whole.

However, as the head coach, he holds ultimate responsibility in ensuring and monitoring his players actions and situations that could effect the overall team. In addition to the fact that football is the ULTIMATE team sport and given such everybody involved lives and dies as a team and therefore are also penalized as a team.

Lost in all of this is, that in the end, the penalties handed down were not directed at any individual but at the institution and athletics program in general. It definitley could have been worse. The NCAA could have also imposed a reduction or shut down in academic support provided by the athletics dept. forcing athletes to share regular tutoring and academic support scheduling with the general student population making it extremely inconvenient and even more difficult for athletes needing alot of one on one attention where they are academically deficient.

There are also some additional factors in the penalty handed down that become clear when reading the actual report. Such as that the NCAA & the University clearly felt that while only 61 athletes came forward/ were verified, this was the “at least” number which is stated over and over when the number is brought up. The fact that of the 61 athletes that were verified as involved only two received at least the same grade in the course when retaken. The other 59 ALL received lower grades. And while FSU certainly attempted to seperate itself from the unccoperative academic advisor, it doesn’t change the fact that numerous athletes admitted he sent them directly to where the AA knew that they would receive improper aid that would result in academic fraud.

Which brings me back to my point that these penalties are directed at FSU as an institution and not directed to any one person directly.

Whether FSU self reports or not, takes total responsibility for the breakdown as an instituiton (which it did), fires those involved and had no knowledge of the ineligbility of the athletes is irrelevant. Those athletes indentified and/or those that simply did the right thing after the fact and openly admitted involvement were still ineligible.

In the end, the punishment fits the crime and follows NCAA procedures and legislation. The NCAA also worked with those involved and devised individual penalties for each athlete considerably lighter than the one-year rule in their bylaws given that FSU accepted the responsibility of the breakdown and those athletes were possibly misled as to the appropriateness of some of the activities that caused this unfortunate set of circumstances.