The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA, represents around 1,200 colleges according to Wikipedia. These institutions of higher learning exist for people looking to expand their horizons, learn a trade, increase their knowledge, and generally attempt to become better people. Thousands of students also wish to participate in athletic events, and the NCAA is there to help coordinate events, enforce rules, and help ensure that these students maintain "amateur" status.
One would then assume that the NCAA would show some level of intelligence. However, the NCAA has once again shown they don't grasp what they should be doing; or they think we're all idiots.
Word came down from the NCAA that Oklahoma football program had violated NCAA rules regarding part time jobs that students are allowed to have while accepting an athletic scholarship from the school. The punishment includes a lost of scholarships for a couple of seasons, and the vacating of all wins the Sooners earned during the 2005 season when these violations took place.
I have several problems with this. I think players should get a stipend, and I find that whenever the NCAA hands down punishment they wind up punishing the kids currently at the school, not the kids or the adults actually involved in the transgression. But the punishment I really love is the vacating of wins.
The way the NCAA's punishment works is that from the Oklahoma side of things they did not play the 2005 season. Oklahoma's official 2005 final record is 0-4. So, Tulsa, Texas A&M, and anyone else who lost to Oklahoma that season doesn't actually gain a win; they keep their loss with no corresponding team having any record of winning the game. I guess the Aggies lost to the grounds crew. And the 2005 Holiday Bowl apparently didn't happen. Well, Oregon still keeps the loss, but nobody actually won.
Who is actually hurt by this? The only victim I see here is common sense. Does not having a record for the 2005 season really hurt the school? Do the people that attended these games now have to forget it? Should Agent K and Agent J do the little flashy thing on every Sooner fan?
Does the NCAA honestly think that you can simply eliminate the just the winner of a game via fiat but still leave behind the loser? Granted, this is not a new concept for the NCAA; numerous games simply didn't happen as far as the NCAA is concerned.
I just can't for the life of me figure out how an organization of colleges can show such a low level of intelligence.
2 comments:
Okay - so let's say a team goes 0-10 for a year - would a coach be well served making something up and having the 10 losses erased from history? (Brennan)
Since from the Sooner's stand point these games didn't happen, could fans ask for a refund of their ticket prices?
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