Thursday, June 21, 2007

Surely you can't be serious. We are serious. And don't call us Shirley.

In just another example of the level of retarded incompetence that is the NCAA, they have announced that the University of Colorado will be placed on 2 years probation, and lose a total of one scholarship per year for the next three years for undercharging walk-ons for meals.

How much did they undercharge you ask?

Roughly $6 per meal.

Granted it was over the period of 6 years and ended up being in the ballpark of a $61,000 total undercharging, but still.... $6 off a meal for walk-ons gets you these kind of sanctions? This has to be the most idiotic rule in the NCAA, and that is saying something. Makes you wonder who's in charge of the whole thing.



According to the Daily Camera there were 133 violations. 86 in football, 29 in women's soccer, 9 in men's basketball, 6 in volleyball, 2 in women's tennis and one in women's golf.

Here's what Mike Bohn had to say:

"I want to say very clearly that this in no way reflects poorly upon our student-athletes. Rather, it represents a challenge to our athletic department leadership to more effectively understand and apply NCAA bylaws, and to better communicate these bylaws to our coaches and staff."

Basically he's saying "this is a stupid rule, but we broke it."

I'm not going to get into my whole problem with the fact that NCAA football and basketball players don't get paid to play when they bring in billions of dollars in revenue to the NCAA... so let's just look at this specific case. If being on the team can't get you a discount off a meal than what's the point of even being on the team?

These walk-ons practice just as hard and as often as the scholarship athletes, they have the same academic and often the same travel requirements, yet they can't eat the same food? Or at least not without paying full price for it. And everyone who went to college knows that you have tons of excess money to spend while you're in school.

I was once a walk-on before my scholarship, and I may have ended up with a few training table meals in my belly. But guess what? I was hungry, I didn't have any money, and I was tired of eating Top Ramen and hot dogs every day. So sue me.

The NCAA sucks.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ditto. Plus, it doesn't give much reason to self-report. Another school might see what happened (and you know tons of schools did the same thing) and just quietly sweep it under the rug. The real story will be what happens to OU and 'SC.

Anonymous said...

In D3 baseball, some days we were lucky to get the wet KMA bag lunches..

"But I can't eat turkey"
"Tough shit, pick it off"

I'm guessing the guys making the rules for walk-ons never actually played anything as a walk-on. Or any team sport for that matter.

Anonymous said...

Bingo. Not a lot of incentive for schools to self-report either after this travesty. Let's see what the geniuses at the NCAA dow with OU and SC now. My bet? Squat.

Anonymous said...

"these kind of sanctions"

2 years probation and 1 out of 85 scholarships lost? That is hardly a hefty sanction. No real impact at all.

JT said...

Well, it's not the death penalty by any means, but losing three sholarships, $100k penalty, and 2 years probation is a little excessive for the penalty they committed.

They don't get 85 scholarships every year, they get somewhere between 15-20. When you lose one out of your 15 scholarships for a season it can be a little painful.

@slushygutter said...

just the stigma of the word "probation" is the part that pisses me off.

where you will see this hurt is in special teams. that one schollie would probably go to the kicker/punter.