(02-23-2017 04:44 PM)MplsBison Wrote: Well, if Ole Miss cheated the rules on recruiting football players (and it seems the school is not denying it), then that's exactly what the NCAA is for. That's the point of it.
It is what they are for. However, they are expected to be impartial and fair in their dealings with all offenders.
We have an interesting scenario setting up here. If North Carolina skates on 25 years of illegally and in violation of NCAA rules, cooking grades to keep player eligible, and the NCAA ignores this or slaps them on the wrist, and then hands out the maximum to Ole Miss which has only given undue benefits to players there will be a major backlash against the NCAA.
IMO the NCAA had to do something about Ole Miss because their player admitted to being paid during the national broadcast of the NFL draft and did so after the NCAA had essentially closed the book on that part of the investigation. It was a massively embarrassing moment for the NCAA. It made their investigative and compliance group look totally inept.
But, are three years of payola more serious of a violation of institutional control than academic fraud for the purposes of keeping players eligible? I think not. Boosters and coaches can pay players without the President and faculty being aware.
But if the University pays a professor for a non existent class, if the Bursar bills students or the government for classes not taken, if the Records office records the grades of non existent classes, and diplomas are issued for work never done, you tell me which is the bigger case of lack of institutional control? All of the above is solely the responsibility of the University's staff. The only way UNC can claim innocence here is if they say hey we were in control, we just lied!
Now juxtapose those two cases against the horror that is Baylor athletics. Neither UNC nor Ole Miss are monsters by comparison.
The current maelstrom that is the convergence of these cases is going to be very difficult for the NCAA to navigate with integrity. All three institutions are going to have get hammered if the NCAA is to keep it's credibility. If not, it could be the seminal moment in a move away from NCAA governance altogether.