Most of you have probably never heard of Mike Balogun. Balogun is a linebacker who attended the University of Oklahoma in 2008 and 2009 after transferring from a junior college. He played sparingly in 2008, but after the announcers at the BCS Championship Game mentioned that he had played semi-pro football, he came under investigation. The minor rule he broke, you ask? He supposedly played in a semi-pro football game, without earning any money, after the age of 21.
Now, by all accounts, the only evidence the NCAA ever brought to the table was a box score on a website not affiliated with the team and some affidavits, which were never released to the public, that were pieced together to assume that he played at the age of 22. Balogun maintains to this day that he never played in that game. The NCAA ruled, however, that he could not play his senior year in college.
Most of you probably do know who Dez Bryant is. Bryant was a wide receiver at Oklahoma State and is now with the Dallas Cowboys. Bryant had dinner with Deion Sanders last summer and, when questioned by the NCAA about that dinner, Bryant got intimidated and told them it didn't happen. The NCAA ruled that he was ineligible for the 2009 season because he lied to them. He didn't take money. He didn't receive anything other than a dinner at Sanders' house. He lied to the NCAA, so he got punished.
The stories go on and on. Jeremy Bloom of Colorado was in limbo for most of a year waiting on a ruling on his eligibility based on being an Olympic athlete. They ruled against him. The Reggie Bush debacle went on for five years before the NCAA ruled him ineligible for receiving extra benefits.
Fast forward to this week. Tuesday, without any press or outside knowledge, Auburn ruled Cameron Newton ineligible because his father solicited money from Mississippi State during his recruitment. This is an NCAA violation in and of itself. Auburn immediately appealed to the NCAA for Newton's reinstatement, again without releasing any of this information to the press. No one knew about any of this.
Yesterday, with much pomp and circumstance, the NCAA ruled that Newton was eligible to play. In the ruling, they stated that since they couldn't prove that Newton had knowledge of his father's dealings, he was clear of any charges. Personally, I did a triple-take. What? Are you kidding me?
The more time there is to think about this, the more questions it raises. First of all, it took the NCAA two days to rule on this? The three situations I mentioned above all took months, even years. They didn't involve hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, only the Bush and Bloom situations involved money at all. Two days? It's all about the kids, right NCAA? It's all about the student athletes. It's all about amateurism. Unless that "amateur" student athlete is the best player on the #1 team in the country preparing to play for his conference championship on his way to the BCS Championship Game. In the immortal words of Mark Mangino, "That's right, BCS. Dollar signs."
Then you get to the really sticky part of this, which is that if the athlete can't be tied to the dealings, the athlete is not culpable. So, as long as my son doesn't know that I'm selling his services to the highest bidder, I can make some cash. I think I'll start today! My one year old son is available to the school who will pay me the most. This is a horrible precedent. We will now have middle men involved in every dealing instead of about 75 percent of them.
And while we're at it, what say should the NCAA have in college football, anyway? It doesn't recognize a champion. It doesn't run any of the bowl games. It's not involved in the conferences or the conference television contracts. The only thing it is involved in is police work. I don't think the organization that won't sponsor a championship should have any say over who is involved in such a championship.
The bottom line about this entire situation is that the NCAA is out of control. They rule with an iron fist, when it won't cost them money. They are hell bent on maintaining amateurism while raking in millions and millions of dollars. It is a complete debacle. It is costing athletes money. It's costing athletes the invaluable experience that they like to sell. It's costing schools millions of dollars for compliance departments that constantly chase their tails.
The NCAA needs to either spend money on a comprehensive plan including more investigators, better and clearer rules and quicker rulings or it needs to get out of the way. But, of course, the NCAA would tell us they don't have the money. It's all about the money.
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