The NCAA’s Death Penalty

You have to respect what NCAA President Mark Emmert was trying to do Monday when he effectively kicked Penn State down to the Football Championship Series for the next five seasons.  It’s his job to enforce the rules and culture of college athletics, and the athletic leadership at PSU really screwed this one up.  Turning blind eyes toward Jerry Sandusky’s hideous sins cost several boys’ their innocence and mental health.

And PSU president Rodney Erickson’s call to pull JoePa’s statue from the stadium while leaving his name on the library was deft.

But did the NCAA over-play this one?  I don’t mean morally, I mean practically.

Let’s separate Sandusky from the question.  That dude should be forced to walk the plank into a tank of almost-starved, lightly-chummed Great Whites.  Or maybe buried up to his chin in the desert, drizzled with honey, and left alone for a pleasant evening under the stars.  Better yet, how about we appoint a two-person committee of Hannibal Lechter and Kevin Spacey’s character from Seven to develop a moral improvement curriculum for Mr. Sandusky?

(You probably can’t tell, but I’m having a difficult time seeing that God wants to redeem Sandusky with the same passion as he does yours truly.  I’ll work on that.)

Let’s also separate the pending criminal charges for the living guys who covered up the abuse reports.

What I’m wondering is whether the NCAA itself is in trouble with this call. 

The fact of the matter is that even though the “WE ARE” nation is trying their best to put on happy faces right now, their football program is at the very least in a deep, deep hole.  And they may never get out of it.

PSU football was Paterno.  Bill O’Brien is probably a great guy but athletes went to PSU because Paterno won a lot of games, went to bowls, and sent kids to the NFL.  O’Brien is still untested as a college football head coach, and he just lost 20 scholarships and any hope for post-season play for 4 years.  Heck, he didn’t even recruit the stars they have now.  Why should kids like Silas Redd stay put when they’re getting calls from dozens of coaches to jump ship?  This could kill Penn State football. 

You might say, “Ho, hum.  We can all do with a little less college football.  So what?”

My question is: Who, exactly, can do with a little less college football?

The physics & chemistry majors whose brand new mass spectrometer arrived courtesy of the 19 year old kid that just caught a fingertip pass at the back of the end zone, making 100,000 otherwise docile men scream like preteen girls?
 
How about the Poly Sci prof who gets to teach a single section of 14^th Century Papal Policy, while “struggling” to crank out a single article every other year?  He might want to thank the 70 year old dude 8 blocks away that just peeled himself out of his $80 seat to buy two $60 hoodies for the grandkids.

Maybe the Title IX recipients could do with a little less college football.  I’m sure the women’s golf team is self-sustaining.  What’s that?  It’s nowhere near self-sustaining?  Hmm.  How about field hockey?  Tennis?  Swimming?

Perhaps university presidents, whose schools are somewhat more likely to receive state tax-payer funding if they have successful football programs?  No, I’m not making that up.  Read about it here, if you want (warning: this one involves math).

Indianapolis Star sportswriter Bob Kravitz recently described this issue—dealing too sternly with the big business of college football—as letting the genie out of the bottle.  I think grabbing a tiger by the tail is a slightly better metaphor, but either works.

Here’s the zinger: membership in the NCAA is voluntary.  It’s been a successful near-monopoly, but all it takes is a few large teams to feel like they’ve had enough.  Penn State starts talking to Southern Cal, who checks in with Ohio State, who then passes the message on to Florida, and so on.

As much as I respect what Emmert wanted to do with this one, part of me wonders whether the NCAA just instituted its own death penalty.  Heck, if the NCAA goes, maybe student athletes would finally start to be fairly compensated for their generous contributions to their university slop troughs.

What do you think?