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NCAA Bias Showing in Too-Harsh Penalty

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In one of my favorite scenes in the film “Stripes,” Bill Murray remarks as his girlfriend leaves him on a day when he virtually lost everything: “And then depression set in.”

This is kind of the feeling I have as I write this article in the midst of a very bad football season for Notre Dame. Did we just lose 21 games in one day? It seems that the NCAA has decided so. It is funny. I thought about this situation earlier in the season and concluded that perhaps nothing was going to come of it. In a terrible year for Notre Dame football, we should have known better.

In what the NCAA concluded was essentially student on student cheating, which involved a former student trainer aiding football players in a number of classes the penalties seem out of line.  The penalties include:

  • 21 vacated wins (during ’12 and ’13 season)
  • 1-year probation for the entire athletic department
  • Public reprimand, censure, and a $5,000 fine
  • 2-year show cause order against former trainer
  • The athletic department must disassociate from the former student trainer for two years

So let me understand this:

The student trainer helps football players cheat.

The university gets wind of this and suspends the student-athletes while completing a thorough investigation.

The NCAA then finds that the university acted honorably throughout and there is no evidence of misconduct, lack of institutional control, or failure to monitor.

Despite these conclusions, the NCAA still imposes what are seemingly ridiculous penalties.

Consider the Penn State case. In that instance the NCAA didn’t even conduct an investigation and imposed severe sanctions on Penn State as a result of the Freeh Report. Chief among the sanctions was vacating all victories from 1998 to 2011. In this instance, the NCAA agreed that the university hid “critical facts” which helped allow a child predator to harm victims. However, in 2014 the NCAA reversed course and restored Penn State’s wins.

Students helping each other cheat vs. protecting a child predator. To quote Charlie Weis, “Do the math.”

In 2013, Miami football gets popped by the NCAA in the Nevin Shapiro scandal in which some players were essentially paid cash to play football. Miami is found guilty of a lack of institutional control. There was no post-season ban and no vacated wins.

For years it has been debated whether there is a bias against Notre Dame. The pick play at Florida State, the lack of review on the Torii Hunter Jr. hit, the two head shots that DeShone Kizer took on Saturday to name a few. Bias or just bad officiating? I like to think it is bad officiating. However, when an NCAA infractions committee says you did nothing wrong while slapping you with harsh penalties, I call that bias.

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About Jimmy Grant

Subway Alumni by birth - 1973. Former D3 Football Player, amateur writer (heavy emphasis on amateur), and football historian. Has been having a torrid love affair with Notre Dame since birth. This peaks during the months of August to January, and is grudgingly tolerated by my wife and children. Follow Jimmy @IrishJimmy22