The NCAA Strikes Again
posted by Scott Hood on Monday, June 25, 2007
Last Friday, South Carolina released a report outlining eight secondary violations committed since January. The most "grievous" of these infractions involved improper contact with football recruits.
While the school is certainly at fault to a degree, I place most of the blame squarely at the feet of the NCAA for a voluminous rule book that's largely complex, confusing and counterproductive to common sense.
In today's world, where the NCAA police are seemingly everywhere, it's nearly impossible for coaches and administrators to engage in normal, everyday activities without violating an archaic rule adopted by some dimwitted NCAA committee more interested in justifying its existence than creating sensible legislation.
Remember, this is the same organization that last year found USC had committed a secondary violation when Jerri Spurrier, wife of head coach Steve Spurrier, wrote handwritten letters of congratulations to players after they had already signed national letters of intent. Under some cockamamie NCAA provision, wives of coaches are considered boosters.
But it gets even more ridiculous. Among the rules governing the so-called May Evaluation period for college football is a provision that allows head coaches to "meet and greet" prospects with a handshake. Yet, they can't engage in any football talk. Why not? Your guess is as good as mine.
This is a classic example of the NCAA foolishly creating a rule with gobs of gray area instead of a clean-cut, black-and-white version that's easily understood by all parties involved. What's the purpose of allowing any contact when nothing more than a handshake and a smile are permitted? They probably need to keep all those employees in the compliance office employed.
But that's not all. This is the same organization that reinstated the eligibility of Kentucky basketball player Randolph Morris two years ago after he had declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA Draft.
The draft came and went and Morris wasn't selected. Under the system in place, the college basketball career of Morris should have been over. But it wasn't. Days after the draft, Kentucky produced a mysterious "fax" dated before the draft purportedly from Morris which supposedly specified his desire to opt out of the draft.
Most people, including many among Kentucky's large contingent of beat writers, laughed at the lunacy. The NCAA bought the sob story hook, line and sinker, and allowed Morris to return to Kentucky. Under the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, a player is required to go through the draft process once. If he's not picked, he's eligible to sign with any team.
As a result, Morris played the entire 2006-2007 season as a free agent in the eyes of the NBA folks. That means he could have left Kentucky anytime he wanted and signed a contract with any NBA team. Nice precedent, huh?
In fact, Morris signed a contract with the New York Knicks within days after Kentucky's season ended. Someone asked me one time why the NCAA ruled the way it did in the Morris case. My answer was succinct: Because it was Kentucky.
How do you think the NCAA would have ruled had Morris been playing for USC or most other Division I schools? You and I both know the answer to that question.
The Morris fiasco leads me to my second point. Not only are many NCAA rules lacking in logic, they are selectively enforced. The NCAA is simply afraid to take on the so-called "big boys," fearful that any penalty deemed too harsh will result in the defection of teams and leagues from their empire.
That's why Alabama wasn't given more severe penalties for numerous major infractions committed by rogue boosters and coaches several years ago, or why nothing came out of the Maurice Clarett situation at Ohio State.
It will be interesting to see if anything develops from the ongoing "investigation" into the Southern Cal program surrounding Reggie Bush, who allegedly took $100,000 from a sports marketing company and whose family was allegedly provided a low-rent luxury house in San Diego while he was playing for the Trojans. That's what the paper trail says, anyway.
In my opinion, nothing will happen. Southern Cal is the top football program on the West Coast and is located smack in the center of the lucrative Los Angeles market. The NCAA is afraid to take any action that could result in a substantial loss of revenue. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel was correct in a recent column – the NCAA is toothless and lacks courage.
Finally, we have the recent controversy over blogging at NCAA Tournament games. Through convoluted thinking, the NCAA believes it owns a copyright in the facts of a game, and can prohibit the media (newspapers and internet sites) from passing on those facts to its readers in real time in order to protect the entities that "bought" blogging rights from the NCAA.
The NCAA likes to refer to players as "student-athletes." I prefer the more appropriate term of "revenue generators." Because that's what Division I athletes do – they generate revenue for their respective schools through their athletic endeavors.
For the NCAA, that's an inconvenient truth.
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The national governing body of intercollegiate athletics – commonly known in my domicile as No Clue About Anything (NCAA) – continues to invent new ways to stay busy.
Last Friday, South Carolina released a report outlining eight secondary violations committed since January. The most "grievous" of these infractions involved improper contact with football recruits.
While the school is certainly at fault to a degree, I place most of the blame squarely at the feet of the NCAA for a voluminous rule book that's largely complex, confusing and counterproductive to common sense.
In today's world, where the NCAA police are seemingly everywhere, it's nearly impossible for coaches and administrators to engage in normal, everyday activities without violating an archaic rule adopted by some dimwitted NCAA committee more interested in justifying its existence than creating sensible legislation.
Remember, this is the same organization that last year found USC had committed a secondary violation when Jerri Spurrier, wife of head coach Steve Spurrier, wrote handwritten letters of congratulations to players after they had already signed national letters of intent. Under some cockamamie NCAA provision, wives of coaches are considered boosters.
But it gets even more ridiculous. Among the rules governing the so-called May Evaluation period for college football is a provision that allows head coaches to "meet and greet" prospects with a handshake. Yet, they can't engage in any football talk. Why not? Your guess is as good as mine.
This is a classic example of the NCAA foolishly creating a rule with gobs of gray area instead of a clean-cut, black-and-white version that's easily understood by all parties involved. What's the purpose of allowing any contact when nothing more than a handshake and a smile are permitted? They probably need to keep all those employees in the compliance office employed.
But that's not all. This is the same organization that reinstated the eligibility of Kentucky basketball player Randolph Morris two years ago after he had declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA Draft.
The draft came and went and Morris wasn't selected. Under the system in place, the college basketball career of Morris should have been over. But it wasn't. Days after the draft, Kentucky produced a mysterious "fax" dated before the draft purportedly from Morris which supposedly specified his desire to opt out of the draft.
Most people, including many among Kentucky's large contingent of beat writers, laughed at the lunacy. The NCAA bought the sob story hook, line and sinker, and allowed Morris to return to Kentucky. Under the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, a player is required to go through the draft process once. If he's not picked, he's eligible to sign with any team.
As a result, Morris played the entire 2006-2007 season as a free agent in the eyes of the NBA folks. That means he could have left Kentucky anytime he wanted and signed a contract with any NBA team. Nice precedent, huh?
In fact, Morris signed a contract with the New York Knicks within days after Kentucky's season ended. Someone asked me one time why the NCAA ruled the way it did in the Morris case. My answer was succinct: Because it was Kentucky.
How do you think the NCAA would have ruled had Morris been playing for USC or most other Division I schools? You and I both know the answer to that question.
The Morris fiasco leads me to my second point. Not only are many NCAA rules lacking in logic, they are selectively enforced. The NCAA is simply afraid to take on the so-called "big boys," fearful that any penalty deemed too harsh will result in the defection of teams and leagues from their empire.
That's why Alabama wasn't given more severe penalties for numerous major infractions committed by rogue boosters and coaches several years ago, or why nothing came out of the Maurice Clarett situation at Ohio State.
It will be interesting to see if anything develops from the ongoing "investigation" into the Southern Cal program surrounding Reggie Bush, who allegedly took $100,000 from a sports marketing company and whose family was allegedly provided a low-rent luxury house in San Diego while he was playing for the Trojans. That's what the paper trail says, anyway.
In my opinion, nothing will happen. Southern Cal is the top football program on the West Coast and is located smack in the center of the lucrative Los Angeles market. The NCAA is afraid to take any action that could result in a substantial loss of revenue. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel was correct in a recent column – the NCAA is toothless and lacks courage.
Finally, we have the recent controversy over blogging at NCAA Tournament games. Through convoluted thinking, the NCAA believes it owns a copyright in the facts of a game, and can prohibit the media (newspapers and internet sites) from passing on those facts to its readers in real time in order to protect the entities that "bought" blogging rights from the NCAA.
The NCAA likes to refer to players as "student-athletes." I prefer the more appropriate term of "revenue generators." Because that's what Division I athletes do – they generate revenue for their respective schools through their athletic endeavors.
For the NCAA, that's an inconvenient truth.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.