Tuesday 7 June 2011

NCAA Justice, a lot Like Totalitarian Third Wold Justice

This past Memorial Day the head football coach at Ohio State, Jim Tressel, resigned in disgrace because he was caught covering up the fact some of his star players traded sports memorabilia for tattoos. The act of trading sports memorabilia for tattoos is a serious offense in the NCAA.

Last year USC was handed the second toughest penalty every by the NCAA. Their crime? Six years earlier the parents of a star player were given a house. The school did not know about the house. The school was punished because the NCAA said they should have known about it. And how was the school punished you ask? They lost a total of 30 scholarships over the next three years. For those unfamiliar, each NCAA football program at the highest level (FCS or Division 1a) is allowed to give out 25 scholarships. So over the next three years they will only be able to give out 15. This is how the NCAA hands out punishment.


So let us get this strait. IN 2004, while playing for USC, the parents of Reggie Bush were given a house to live in by a sports marketer. So, as punishment, 30 kids in the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013 will not get a football scholarship. We will never know exactly who the 30 kids are lose out but they do exist. Sure, USC is a top notch program. The 30 kids who will not get to go to USC will catch on at other schools. Though, when they catch on at other schools it will bump another 30 kids. And it will keep going that way until we are left with 30 anonymous kids who go without football scholarships.

The whole USC issue reminds me of the case of Kay and Kerry Danes. The Danes' are an Australian couple sentenced in Laos for gem smuggling. They did not actually smuggled gems. They worked for another couple who were smuggling gems. That other couple fled Laos before being apprehended. So the Danes were convicted and sentenced because someone had to pay for such a serious crime. This is how the NCAA operates. There is nothing they can do to Reggie Bush, his parents or the sports marketer who gave them the house. So instead the NCAA will punish 30 anonymous kids by taking away an opportunity for them to get a football scholarship. Maybe NCAA investigators should travel to Laos to get some more tips on advancing the cause of injustice.

12 comments:

  1. Nice post, interesting and informing!

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  2. Yeah nice post, USC losing their championship last night was strange.

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  3. That does seem pretty stupid... I am sure they could figure something else out.

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  4. I can't believe that guy was trading that stuff! How offensive! Some people just have no respect for the game.

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  5. I was not aware of the punishments... that is quite horrible. I can't believe it!
    That being said, there's a great article in this week's SI on this issue.

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  6. There are some stupid guys in the world, this article clearly shows it. :(

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  7. The NCAA just needs to be done with already . . . EVERYONE knows Cam Newton was PAID!!!

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  8. people need to just learn already... its a sad fact that things will probably never change.

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  9. That is pretty horrible to punish other people for someone else's greed/mistake
    I don't see how it will change anything either

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  10. Gotta pay players to play. Not like a college education gets anyone a job nowadays. Oh yeah, and ban over-signing. Over-signing is truly evil. Tressel was in a no-win situation.

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  11. I think this kind of greed it so deep seeded its far too hard to separate from the sport in the first place, unfortunately...

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