And in Breaking News... Alabama cheats
by vineyarddawg on Jun 11, 2009 1:38 PM EDT
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PrintESPN is reporting that Alabama may have to vacate as many as 21 wins from the 2005-2007 seasons because some athletes used the "free textbook" program to get free textbooks for students that weren't eligible to get them.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this isn't as bad as some of the other violations that Alabama has been penalized for recently. At the same time, however, while not exactly being academic fraud, this practice could certainly be characterized as fraud.
The important issue, however, is that the NCAA doesn't see this as just another minor violation like mentioning a recruits name in public, or contacting a recruit during a non-contact period, or talking to a recruit in front of ESPN cameras. Alabama is, once again, placing themselves right at the top of the "repeat offender" list.
In all seriousness, Alabama is about one more booster scandal away from receiving the death penalty. The NCAA said exactly that when they handed down the Tide's multi-year probation for the Albert Means fiasco. They had better watch themselves and keep their noses super-clean for the next 4 or 5 years (if that's even possible).
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alabama cheats?
if you mean breaking rules to gain an advantage over an opponent, no it wasn’t cheating. there was a “gap” in rules taken adavantage by some student atheletes. the infraction was “failure to monitor”. if you were to read to ncaa report rather than to go on what you heard from various media outlets, you’ll see how ridiculous the whole matter is.
Does this mean
we can completely ignore the first half of last year’s game in Athens?
if an ncaa ruling makes you feel better about your team on the field, absolutely
but the game doesn’t fit in the window of vacated wins…. seriously, if your team lost to alabama in the window, and now alabama also has a loss from that contest, do you feel any better about it? as an alabama alumni, i am fine w/ the sanctions. yes, we vacated wins. yes, it will be appealed. however, i still remember how the games were played on the field and have confidence that this will have no effect on the future bama teams whatsoever.
I've always thought . . .
vacated wins are the NCAA’s least effective punitive measure, because it’s solely cosmetic. Unless it’s a unique situation like Florida State’s, a situation where every win is dear to the program’s figurehead coach, no one really notices or remembers.
The first half of that Alabama game was an all out baby seal clubbing, and the second half wasn’t a whole lot better. Even if, solely for the sake of argument, Alabama were required to surrender that win, we all know it happened. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it. I don’t think our team forgot it for the rest of the season.
In this day and time, if the NCAA or conferences really want to hit schools where it hurts, they’ll focus the penalties on scholarship reductions, postseason bans, and (this is a departure, but I think would be a real attention getter) TV money. Can you imagine what athletic directors would do if their football staff did something that cost them 25% of their annual TV deal distribution? That’s the kind of thing that would get a staff canned. Because when you mess with the cashflow, you’re messing with the lifeblood of an athletic program.
Not only that . . .
. . . but vacated wins recently have not held up on appeal.
Even if vacated wins (which are distinguishable from forfeits in that they mean the game effectively did not happen, rather than that the other team won) represented a real punishment, they seldom stick. Georgia Tech had to vacate wins in 2005 or thereabouts . . . and the sanction was overturned on appeal. The same was true of Oklahoma a couple of years later, and it appears (unless news has broken lately without my knowledge) that the same will be true of Florida State, as well.
The Yellow Jackets’, Sooners’, and Seminoles’ scandals all were much more serious than the Crimson Tide’s. If this is appealed, it’s virtually guaranteed that part of the punishment will be overturned.
MaconDawg is right . . . if you’re not taking cash out of a program’s pocket or players off of a team’s roster, you’re painting a portrait of a punishment rather than doing anything substantive.
Go 'Dawgs!
Agreed.
Unfortunately, in the society we live in today, money is the ultimate motivating factor for major college athletic departments. Hit them in the wallet, and you will see change take place remarkably rapidly.
by vineyarddawg on Jun 14, 2009 1:34 AM EDT up reply actions
ANYTHING FOR AN ADVANTAGE
Alabama has and always will try at any means to benefit from their cheating ways. Look how many former Bear Bryant assistants have put programs on probation. Danny Ford, Charlie Pell, Pat Dye, Mike Dubose, Gene Stallings and the present AD at Alabama, Mal Moore…..They all learned from the Bear himself.
Your theory has no substantial proof to back it up whatsoever...
Of course rival fans are quick to point out Bear Bryant was a cheater, yet never was he ever under the impression of being a cheater. I suppose the NCAA was scared of one man? Obviously they weren’t scared of Shug.
In a similar similarity, tell me how so many kids who are raised by christian parents, wind up criminals when they’re released into the wild? It’s not because their mentors taught them to be that way and that’s for certain.
Others will forever claim Bear Bryant was a cheater just because he was successful, and if he had never taken the Alabama job, they would then point the fingers at Frank Thomas, or Wallace Wade, or whoever else would’ve been a success in place of Bryant.
After spending seven wondrous years in the state of Alabama, never in my life have I seen fans, who claim to be loyal to one team, spend more time AUbsessing over the other more so than they do their very own.
by SanFranDude12 on Jun 23, 2009 8:20 PM EDT up reply actions
textbooks?
don’t get carried away thinking this is big news. some atheletes received books not required for the course. they returned the books and were suspended from play. it’s not like they were funneled through some bogus sociology department…
I have a hard time understanding why teams below the Mason-Dixon line, such as Alabama, Auburn, FSU, and Oklahoma, are the teams who are most likely to receive a punishment. It boggles my mind to know the “media darlings”, such as USC, are the teams who can commit the crime knowing it simply be swept under the rug
After spending seven wondrous years in the state of Alabama, never in my life have I seen fans, who claim to be loyal to one team, spend more time AUbsessing over the other more so than they do their very own.
Don't forget Ohio State
How the Maurice Clarett saga didn’t get Ohio State put on probation boggles my mind. Did no one at the N.C.A.A. read a newspaper?
Go 'Dawgs!
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