Sounding Off: Should we take NCAA seriously in light of OSU penalties?

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  • Sounding Off: Should we take NCAA seriously in light of OSU penalties?
    Sounding Off: Should we take NCAA seriously in light of OSU penalties?
  • A view inside Gallagher-Iba Arena on January 22, en:2005 after the Oklahoma State University Cowboys defeated the Baylor University Bears 82-53. This was the first game on the newlynamed Eddie Sutton Court. Courtesy Photo • Wikimedia Commons
    A view inside Gallagher-Iba Arena on January 22, en:2005 after the Oklahoma State University Cowboys defeated the Baylor University Bears 82-53. This was the first game on the newlynamed Eddie Sutton Court. Courtesy Photo • Wikimedia Commons
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To say the NCAA is used to controversy would be an understatement.

The organization seems to be issuing fines or postseason bans for its member schools at every turn.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised in the NCAA’s decision last Friday to sanction the Oklahoma State University men’s basketball team.

The penalties included a one-year postseason ban, three years of probation, and reduced the team’s scholarships by one for the next three seasons.

What is surprising, however, is the timing of the decision.

First, this investigation began with a case that originated in September 2017 when then OSU associate head coach Lamont Evans was arrested as part of a larger bribery scandal which engulfed multiple schools.

Second, Evans was sentenced to a three-month prison term back in June 2019 for accepting between $18,500 to $22,000 in bribes to steer players from OSU to particular financial advisors and agents.

By either measure, a lot of time has passed.

What also strikes me as odd it that the NCAA’s Public Infractions Decision dated June 5, 2020, does not include Evans’ name anywhere in its 27 pages.

Instead, in the first paragraph of page one, the report states, “this case centered on the unethical conduct of the former associate head men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma State University, who was involved in the bribery scheme to sell access to student-athletes.”

The second page says the coach acted independently, but the school (aka institution) must be held accountable for the behavior of their employees.

In these times of not just the pandemic but also the OSU community still mourning the recent death of iconic basketball coach Eddie Sutton, the NCAA’s decision feels out of place.

Although crime is not my beat, I understand how investigations work.

Yes, they take time to unfold, but they also need to be completed as quickly as possible.

This feels like another example of the NCAA dropping the ball or at least finding someone to blame. Its own paperwork focuses squarely on Evans (not by name) and interactions he had with financial advisors and agents seeking to enrich themselves through high level amateur athletics.

To hear the NCAA tell it, they are the protectors of amateur athletics for 1,098 member schools across the United States.

While it is true that the NCAA has been around in some form since 1906, its primarily been in place to set rules and name champions.

Yes, it’s true that the organization has promoted college athletes, there is something disingenuous about it as an organization.

Maybe it’s the fact that the NCAA makes a little more than $1 billion annually while being designated as a non-profit. Interesting side note: in 2017, the Division I Men’s Basketball television and marketing rights netted the group $821.4 million in revenue.

Not bad for an organization built off of unpaid athletes.

While players do get scholarships to cover the cost of college, there have been reports over the years showing student-athletes missing meals for practice or not getting enough to eat or living below the poverty line.

Consider that the NCAA had what were considered nutrition rules for studentathletes until 2015. This came the year after Connecticut’s Shabazz Napier (the 2014 NCAA Tournament’s Outstanding Player) told reporters and essentially, the world, that there were nights he went to bed hungry.

Now, we aren’t talking about paying players. That is a conversation for another time. All things considered, does anyone else feel a little less convinced of the NCAA’s wisdom in general?