The irony of pleading with the NCAA for enforcement

[18IsTheMan]

For decades, fans and coaches railed against the NCAA for its unfeeling and heavy-handed enforcement of eligibility and transfer rules. In quite an ironic twist, coaches are now coming out and pleading with the NCAA to enforce rules. Looking back, the NCAA's approach made some sense. It's the old "give an inch and they'll take a mile". Once the NCAA rules were slightly cracked, the whole thing burst like dam. While they have been irrational and dictatorial in how they previously enforced rules, it was unquestionably a far better system than what we have now, without any debate to be had on that point.

 

[Swifty]

Yeah, I think the biggest gripe with how things were done 5+ years ago was the arbitrary nature of how they handled situations. I remember Damiere Byrd getting a bigger suspension than a Florida player for the exact same infraction, some camp in New Jersey they both went to and it was payed for in a way that was an infraction. The hand slaps the blue bloods got while others got heavier penalties was infuriating.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Yeah, I think the biggest gripe with how things were done 5+ years ago was the arbitrary nature of how they handled situations. I remember Damiere Byrd getting a bigger suspension than a Florida player for the exact same infraction, some camp in New Jersey they both went to and it was payed for in a way that was an infraction. The hand slaps the blue bloods got while others got heavier penalties was infuriating.

Yes, those aspects were definitely aggravating.

 

[SouthernBelly]

Yeah, I think the biggest gripe with how things were done 5+ years ago was the arbitrary nature of how they handled situations. I remember Damiere Byrd getting a bigger suspension than a Florida player for the exact same infraction, some camp in New Jersey they both went to and it was payed for in a way that was an infraction. The hand slaps the blue bloods got while others got heavier penalties was infuriating.

What was the thing coaches used to say about being able to buy a recruit a bagel but you couldn’t buy them the cream cheese for it. Something like that was how they explained the NCAA enforcement.

 

[18IsTheMan]

What was the thing coaches used to say about being able to buy a recruit a bagel but you couldn’t buy them the cream cheese for it. Something like that was how they explained the NCAA enforcement.

Don't forget decorated cookie cakes!

The NCAA surely brought some of this upon itself for the way it was arbitrary, petty and unfeeling in the way they enforced rules. But I'd still take that over what we have now.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

Which is worse, the avoidance of enforcement or the biased and uneven enforcement of NCAA rules?
Not sure how we get there, but an independent agency needs to handle it but $$$ always sway these decisions.

 

[3USC1801]

Which is worse, the avoidance of enforcement or the biased and uneven enforcement of NCAA rules?
Not sure how we get there, but an independent agency needs to handle it but $$$ always sway these decisions.

One word seems to repeatedly crop up when discussing this
topic. . . chaos. There’s no enforcement, no accountability, and no rules in this new era. At least with “uneven enforcement,“ there wasn’t this much chaos. But I understand your viewpoint. Neither one is satisfying.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Which is worse, the avoidance of enforcement or the biased and uneven enforcement of NCAA rules?
Not sure how we get there, but an independent agency needs to handle it but $$$ always sway these decisions.

There was unquestionably more stability with the uneven enforcement. While penalties may have been arbitrarily applied, at least issues like eligibility were mostly cut and dry. You had 5 years to play 4 with a redshirt year. Players could apply for a 6th year based on injury but that was fairly strictly applied. No transfers unless you sat out a year or transferred down to FCS for a year. There really weren't a lot of eligibility questions.

 

[Swifty]

The transfer portal has been the real wrench in the gears, in my opinion. There could have been a tweak to the old system where a non-graduate player would be allowed to transfer to FBS without sitting out a year or having to transfer down to FCS or lower before coming back to FBS so long as it coincided with a coaching change. But the old system was pretty dang good. It allowed grad students to transfer without the sit-out/FCS requirement while keeping some dadgum order amongst the other 99% of players.

 

[atl-cock]

Which is worse, the avoidance of enforcement or the biased and uneven enforcement of NCAA rules?
Not sure how we get there, but an independent agency needs to handle it but $$$ always sway these decisions.

Sums it up nicely.

 

[Piscis]

Auburn and $cam broke the NCAA. They gave the world the recipe for beating the NCAA. If you are going to cheat, cheat big and win big. The NCAA wouldn't touch the big time winning programs who blatantly cheated and, instead, focused on pillorying lower tier programs over silly technical violations. Auburn also showed the world that the way to handle an NCAA investigation was to stonewall, deny, lawyer up and do not, under any circumstances, assist the NCAA in any way in their investigation.

After $cam, the NCAA had enjoyed no respect from anyone in college sports. They were seen as incompetent, arbitrary and weak.