The NCAA as a committee has been quite...inconsistent as of late. Teams are now taking the approach of "if you ain't cheating, you are not trying." Just this week, Louisville's Basketball team just received violations from the NCAA. The "crime" Louisville committed was providing prostitutes to recruits when visiting the campus. The University of Louisville in the wrong here, no doubt about it. Someone on the coaching staff set up this "tactic" and should be punished. The NCAA's response was a "slap on the wrist" punishment. Vacated wins (including a 2014 Championship), a five game suspension for Coach Pitino, and a 4 year probation for the Basketball program.
Two interesting things from this is that Coach Pitino said had no idea this was going on and that University's President is going to repeal of the violations.
Here is a quote from USA Today by Chris Korman: "Strippers, for kids under 18. Prostitutes, for kids under 18. At the school’s special dorm for basketball players. And head coach Rick Pitino swearing he knew nothing about it, blaming it all on an operations manager — and former player — gone rogue."
Hmmm.....sounds a little off me. And the President of the University is appealing the violations....are you kidding me? The University of Louisville should be celebrating the NCAA decision, maybe hire some strippers for the party. Maybe too soon.
In all seriousness, this is a common theme for the NCAA committee. Look at Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, always pushing the limits with the NCAA and their laws. Some of Harbaugh's tactics are this recent Italy trip, sleeping over at a recruits house (a kicker by the way, come on Jim... at least make it a defensive tackle) and the satellite camps he was hosting around the country. He didn't commit any violations because there was nothing written for what he was doing. He was finding loopholes within the system. Genius or a "law breaker"? That is for you to decide.
Let's look at some of the NCAA more famous rulings.
First one that jumps to mind is good ol' Southern Methodist University in 1987. The SMU football team received the death penalty. From Wikipedia, "The death penalty is the popular term for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's power to ban a school from competing in a sport for at least one year. It is the harshest penalty that an NCAA member school can receive." The NCAA has executed the death penalty only 5 times.
The NCAA issued the death penalty on 1987 SMU football season. The penalty was so serve that the school had to forfeit their 1988 season because they could not field a team. The next 20 years for SMU football was horrible, one winning season during that time. The reasoning for the death penalty in SMU's case is because they were paying players to come to SMU. So to make it come full circle, SMU was playing players, they were repeat offenders, and they received the harshest penalty a University can get from the NCAA
Now lets look at Baylor University from 2012-2016 and their sexual assault scandal. The scandal started when university officials failed to take action to protect or prevent the alleged rapes and sexual assault victims. The football coach, Art Briles, and the University's President were forced out. A former linebacker at Baylor was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for his sexual assaults he committed and 3 people are involved as well that committed sexual assaults. The whole Baylor thing is a complete mess and new information comes out almost every week. In 2017, a lawsuit stated that from 2011 to 2014 at least 31 players committed at least 52 rapes. The NCAA violations are unknown, but from reading articles around the web, it sounds like the NCAA is not going to do anything.
(Pictured is Art Briles)
Let's look at Penn State now. Penn State in 2012 for the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal received: Five year probation, 4 year post-season ban, vacating wins from 1998 to 2011 (112 wins), 60 million dollar fine, and a lost of 40 scholarships. Pretty harsh sentence. Even though I felt Penn State should have gotten the death penalty, I am O.K. with this sentence.
(Pictured is Joe Paterno)
This is where the NCAA is completely broken. The NCAA is too inconsistent with their penalties. The NCAA gives SMU the death penalty for paying it's players, Penn State gets harsh violations for their "crime", but Baylor is going to get off clean? This ridiculous and the NCAA should be under fire for their actions. In Baylor's case, it was complete lack of institutional control and the NCAA should drop the hammer on them and issue the death penalty on Baylor's football team. But the thing is, the NCAA won't. The NCAA will never issue the death penalty on another Division 1 football again. The Reason: $$$
Penn State almost got shutdown, but didn't. They were still able to operate football games and generate some money for the NCAA. The NCAA learned a hard lesson by giving SMU the death penalty. No football games = No money. And SMU back in the 80's was a powerhouse team and always inside the top 25. So the money was flowing from their football team. The NCAA would lose a lot of money shutting down Baylor's football team. These teams are too big to fail.
As a College Football fan, I want the NCAA to establish power again. I want them to enforce rules and punish teams that are not following them. Unfortunately, I look at the NCAA as a joke...inconsistent, powerless, and unpredictable. Teams know they can get away with stuff and but hey, it you aren't cheating, you are not trying...
What do you guys think?
Make sure to follow and comment below!
Thanks!