2. Alabama’s textbook case: How serious? Understand that when the NCAA is involved, nothing happens in a vacuum. The NCAA has a long, long memory.
Here is what I mean. Normally, jay walking is not a serious offense. But if you go before the same judge a bunch of times for various transgressions, he might be tempted to send you a message with a punishment that goes beyond the seriousness of the crime. And then you have to hire a lawyer and fight like crazy on what appeared to be something fairly minor.
That is the situation that faces Alabama football. In the fall of 2007 the school had to sit five football players because of what it said was a glitch in its method of providing textbooks and other educational materials to athletes. This glitch allowed “friends” of the athletes to also get these materials, whose reported value was around $1,600. If you think that sounds like chump change in a multi-million dollar enterprise that is Alabama football, it is. But it also misses the point.
Alabama went before the judge, better known as the NCAA’s committee on infractions, on Feb. 20. The COI normally makes a final decision about 4-6 weeks after that meeting.
The judge probably wanted to know why, after getting everything BUT the death penalty in 2002, Alabama would allow ANY glitches like this to happen.
Nobody knows what is going to happen in this case. If somebody tells you they do, they are delusional—or lying. But you can’t dismiss it as minor until the judge SAYS that it is minor.
It’s good to be back. So what did I miss? | Mr. College Football