NCAA needs wake up call

So the decision has finally been made on the status of Guy-Marc Michel and I for one was shocked. I know that these cases of college athletes playing overseas can get very complicated but my initial thought when the NCAA announced it would be investigating him was that he would probably get a 2-1 suspension for each game that he played overseas that he didn’t maintain his “amateur” status (although new rules have been passed that do let players play for professional teams while maintaining their amateur status).  I understand that there are other parts to the suspension besides the 5 games like the fact that he enrolled with the team in 2006 which starts the NCAA clock to give you your 5 years to play 4. I understand that rules are rules but there just seem to many inconsistencies with the NCAA rulings and some penalties don’t necessarily seem to measure up to the crime. After hearing that he would never be able to suit up for the Hoosiers, I felt that it was too harsh and decided to do some research on what penalties have been issued to other college athletes in various situations.

On the basketball front look at what happened to KU freshman Josh Selby. Selby accepted impermissible benefits of $5,757.58 (even Guy didn’t accept money) and his punishment resulted in a nine game suspension and he has to pay back the amount he accepted. However, he won’t be writing a check from his personal bank account because he can use the check he gets each month from his athletic scholarship to pay back the money. And where is the money going that he has to give back? Answer, a charity of his choice.

One of the cases that angers me the most is the situation with Cam Newton. While all the rumors have been swirling around about his father participating in a pay-for-play scandal, Cam has been able to play for Auburn and was just recently ruled eligible for the SEC championship game. The NCAA claimed that neither Cam or Auburn University had any knowing of Cam’s father’s doing and therefor shouldn’t be punished. First off, you will never convince me that neither Cam or Auburn had no idea that anything ever went on. If it is in fact true, then Cam’s father did a masterful job of hiding a secret from someone under his own roof all this time. Regardless of all of this, the NCAA has handed down suspensions for similar and less harsh cases. Case in point, 1995 Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire was handed a one game suspension because his father accepted a plane ticket from an agent. Similar to the Cam Newton case, Damon was unaware of the fact his father had accepted something from an agent. In both cases the players were unaware of a father doing something that was against the rules yet Damon gets a suspension (even though his father accepted a single plane ticket) and Cam gets no suspension (even though his father accepted an estimated $180,000). Doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.

This brings me to my last example of Enes Kanter.The Turkey born player for the University of Kentucky was just handed down a similar suspension as Guy Marc-Michel. Kanter’s family had an opportunity to collect millions of dollars if Enes played on a professional team but instead chose to merely accepted money for expenses payed by his club team totaling $33,000. The NCAA decided that this amount was excessive and Enes would be suspended for the entire season. Many people look at the amount of money Cam Newton’s father was going to collect and get confused why Enes gets suspended for the whole year for a value totaled way less than Cam’s pay-for-play campaign.

One of the issues that needs to be brought up is that it is extremely difficult for players overseas to know what is acceptable and unacceptable if they ever want to play college basketball in the United States. Kanter’s family, who is thousands of miles and a whole culture removed from how the NCAA functions, most likely doesn’t even have the means and resources to figure out what they should be doing to maintain Enes’ amatuer status. All of this happened with Enes was 16 years old and now he is being punished for his parents mishandling of the money situation when he would never even know any better.

I understand that there are some very fine intricacies in the NCAA rules and I would assume that whether or not something was done by a third party agent, a University, someone acting on behalf or not on behalf of someone, can change the outcomes of these cases. Regardless, after seeing all these things that have gone on and the punishments that have been made it still leads me to believe that Guy Marc-Michel is getting an extremely harsh penalty for what he did. Even Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany spoke out against the recent ruling of Cam Newton saying that regardless of whether someone acted on behalf of someone of as a third party etc… there needs to be some accountability in these situations.  (Read full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2010-12-03/delany-critical-of-newton-ruling)

With all of this said what do you guys think? Does Guy deserve to never suite up for the Hoosiers while there are athletes and their families accepting large sums of money and merely getting a slap on the wrist if even that?