‘Bama Cheats, NCAA Says It Doesn’t Care
Is there anything lamer than vacating past victories?
From the Birmingham News.
My favorite part – “The ruling, which will be announced at 2 p.m., also includes the NCAA placing Alabama on three more years of probation, and Alabama will pay a fine. “
Three MORE years probation. What’s next, double-secret probation?
You see Alabama football was already in the midst of five probation period for past violations. And if one might expect enhanced penalties, one is bound to be disappointed. As you see, for their most recent transgressions the Crimson Tide, besides the new probation, will have to forfeit “at least 10 wins”. There will be no scholarship penalties.
In other words all the markings of the proverbial slap on the wrist.
There is simply nothing lamer the NCAA can do than cause schools to forfeit past victories. No one cares, not the school, not the fans and – with the exception of perhaps Bobby Bowden – not the coaches. What are you going to do – brag to your rival that you really beat them back in 2006 despite what occurred on the field?
The only penalties worth anything are penalties to your future, and Alabama got none here. And the NCAA continues its toothless irrelevance in the face of the sports biggest programs.
Mentioned in Austin Murphy's book 
7 comments:
I believe Alabama was not on probation until this latest incident. They left probation for their paying players in 2007.
OK, Mergz, what penalties should have been levied against Alabama? If you've kept up with the case, you'd know that this textbook deal created no competitive advantages and in the case of those students that were abusing the system intentionally, they were, in essence, stealing from the University. While it may be a "slap on the wrist", I don't really see how the NCAA has any more jurisdiction in this case than they due in...say, UF have 24 arrests in the last few years?
*having*
Crap.
It's not that it created an unfair advantage... I don't think taking away wins makes any sense unless the coaches knowingly played players that they had illegally paid, recruited, passed, etc.
The point of the punishment is not that it helped them win, but rather that "The NCAA responded by alleging that Alabama committed 'potentially major' rules violations by failing to monitor its student-athlete textbook distribution system"
The NCAA cares about "institutional control" - not wins... and the violations occurred during 2005-06 when Alabama was already on probation and should have been on lock down... making them a repeat violator
The situation did, in fact, create and unfair advantage because players which should have been suspended (if Alabama had properly monitored the textbook process) played in those games. When players that SHOULD NOT be playing are playing, that is an UNFAIR advantage.
This was an issue that was not isolated to football, was it? The NCAA rationale for the punishment is to punish the university by taking away their bragging rights for those wins in order to encourage them to better monitor their internal systems.
Does the punishment fit with the crime? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't seem like much, but it also doesn't punish the current student athletes who had NOTHING to do with the event.
What would true justice be here? I don't know, but I don't think that the fact that Bama was already on probation was weighted enough...
I do agree that forfeiting victories is pretty much meaningless, since people live in the "now" and a win is a win, the NCAA can try to take it away, but it doesn't change the results of the season for all the teams Bama played against. Waste of a penalty.
NCAA must really be afraid to punish teams and cripple their futures...
Taking away wins, does anyone even notice that??? Mergz has a point, and a great blog btw. Mergz, just an FYI you're welcome to use any of my company's widgets (watercooler-inc.com) anytime you like - that and your patently flawless arguments will take you places :) Would love to have a phone call sometime to explore business development opportunities. Let me know! Oh yea, here's the widget link:
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Bama is garbage.
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