Mizzou football: What the NCAA is doing to the Tigers is criminal
Look, there’s nothing that needs to be said about Mizzou’s 24-20 loss to Tennessee on Saturday night that hasn’t already been said during this current 5-game losing streak.
The offense was atrocious, the defense gave up a career-high in passing yards to Jarrett Guarantano, and Barry Odom continues to be outclassed as a coach. So, instead of rehashing all of those talking points, let’s use this space this week to discuss something else.
Why are the Missouri Tigers still waiting for an NCAA ruling? The Tigers were involved in a scandal involving a tutor that took place several years ago, when no one on this roster was on the team.
The Mizzou administration cooperated with NCAA investigators, but the program still was hit with a 1-year postseason ban. Since that decision was handed down in January, the Tigers have been fighting it.
That’s right, since January, the Tigers have been trying to learn their fate with the NCAA. Since then, a ton of things have happened. I’m going to try to list a bunch of them right now, but please keep in mind that this is far from a full list:
- First and most egregious, Mississippi State has had an eerily similar situation happen, which involved players still in school. The Bulldogs took advantage of a new rule to negotiate a penalty that didn’t involve a bowl ban.
- Memphis basketball’s James Wiseman was suspended, took out an emergency injunction against the NCAA to play in a couple more games, then was still suspended for 11 games.
- Ohio State DE Chase Young was suspended for 2 games for accepting a loan to help his girlfriend pay for a plane ticket to come see him in the Rose Bowl. His case has now been fully adjudicated and his sentence completed.
- The NCAA has approved a plan to look into athletes being able to make money for their names, images and likenesses.
- An entire MLB season was played (162 games plus postseason and even spring training).
- Oh yeah, and Mizzou has had both a 5-game winning streak and a 5-game losing streak in this timeframe.
See? It’s not that the NCAA is unable to act quickly. It’s that they seem to be deliberately punishing the Tigers for some unknown reason. They’ve absolutely shown the capability to rule on a topic, hear an appeal and then make a final decision. Instead, with Mizzou, the organization is dragging its feet on that last part.
There is absolutely no reason Mizzou should be entering the final week of the 2019 regular season still waiting to learn its postseason fate.
At 5-6, Friday’s rivalry game at Arkansas is a huge one for Odom and his squad. It’s almost like the NCAA is waiting for the Tigers to gain bowl eligibility in order to deny the appeal out of pettiness.
That’s not a claim I make lightly, but is there really another explanation? Clearly, the NCAA feels that this Mizzou situation is something it needs to hammer the Tigers over, and it seemingly wants to make a statement with the timing of the final ruling.
If that is the case, that is absolutely embarrassing for everyone involved. If that’s not the case, then make a decision immediately, before the Tigers step foot on the War Memorial Stadium turf in Little Rock on Friday afternoon.
There are plenty of other factors at play in Mizzou’s slide from 5-1 to where it stands now at 5-6, but the looming NCAA cloud isn’t helping. The NCAA claims to be all about the “student-athletes,” but then it goes and pulls something like this with the Tigers.
Think about the seniors on the roster. They have absolutely no idea if they’re about to play their last game Friday. If they lose, then obviously the 2019 season is over, but what happens if they beat Arkansas? The seniors are just supposed to sit around waiting to see if they’re going to a bowl game? That’s ridiculous.
Honestly, Mizzou should just accept its bowl ban and then start cheating its butt off. Start fake classes like North Carolina. Make “strong-ass offers” to recruits like LSU basketball coach Will Wade allegedly did. Do whatever it takes to field a championship-caliber team.
Then, when the NCAA or the FBI or whoever calls you on it, deny, deny, deny. That strategy has worked for a bunch of schools already, and who cares if a title banner has to be taken down in the future because those wins have been “vacated?” You don’t take away fans’ memories or the rings the players get.
If everyone else is benefitting from actively thumbing their noses at the NCAA, it’s time for Mizzou to get in on the action, too. Since the NCAA seems to have conveniently forgotten all about the Tigers, maybe they could even get away with it.
As a Carolina grad living in STL I’m feeling for my Mizzou buds. But I have a solution. If you could just add ‘UNC’ before MU the NCAA would let you of the hook!!!
I agree. The NCAA is hosing Missou. Unless there is more here than has been disclosed, some kind of uncorrected institutional control issue for example, then let the kids play.
The NCAA has a few bevo/beakers in it, that’s likely part of it, just plain old fashioned petty personal agendas being played out. The sad part is a school like Mizzou isn’t wise enough to take matters into their own hands and out these vile crooks with threats of legal action. The NCAA is as corrupt as the US gov. and everyone SHOULD already know this.
There was more involved and other Mizzou sports involved. And everyone is forgetting the NCAA allowed Mizzou to participate in the baseball post season while their appeal was being finished up and submitted this past June. Heck the NCAA deadline to respond isn’t until Monday…which is usually when you get the final determination. And the writer forgets, that there was punishment handed out in the other cases as well…sometimes completely unnoticed by the sports media.
What was forgotten? I mentioned the other punishments. Maybe you’re the one who is forgetful.
The argument isn’t that the Tigers shouldn’t be punished, it’s that the punishment was way too harsh compared to similar offenses. Also, the NCAA didn’t “allow” the baseball team to participate in the postseason. They just couldn’t ban them because the appeal was still in process.
It certainly sounded that way. Especially considering in 2016 the NCAA found a handful of impermissible-benefit violations and deemed Mizzou had “failed to monitor” its program for potential violations. That is not light wording from the NCAA. Then Mizzou reports more activity from the same time period they got dinged for a failure to monitor.
The tutor in question helped 12 athletes across 5 sport cheat across three types of classes: ones at Mizzou, ones at other schools that Mizzou players were taking to load up credits, and a math placement exam at Mizzou. The players who benefitted from the tutor’s help were split between football, baseball, softball, women’s soccer, and men’s basketball.
The tutor got a 10 year show cause. A 1 year ban for all sports involved is not that severe when it could have been much worse given a previous faiure to Monitor case from the exact same time period. And they might get relief from the NCAA but acting like it wasn’t terrible when it was more failure to monitor after already being caught for it in the same time period is why the NCAA is taking the time it is. You can’t wish away the previous failure to monitor charge. The NCAA certainly doesn’t when it happens immediately again.
Couldn’t have happened to a better journalism school.
Melissa Click said to tell you hello.
Lesson is you have to stonewall NCAA. What do you have to lose. They definitely screwed seniors. I agree with you Adam that team might have been totally different if they knew what they were playing for.
pardon me but am I late to the party on this? Missouri broke rules. The investigations followed. The NCAA passed on down it’s list of punishments. Missouri then went and asked? Petitioned? Begged? I don’t care what term you use, but they said they weren’t happy with the punishments they earned and wanted the NCAA to look back into it to, and I’m assuming here, lessen the punishments dealt to them.
End of story.
What are we waiting for?
Why is this still news?
At what point did the NCAA tell Missouri, “yes you know you are right and have a valid point. We will look into your punishments and get back to you.” When did that happen because near as best as I can tell, the NCAA has done no such thing. No promise was made to Missouri to amend it’s ruling based on Missouri appealing it’s punishments. What I am saying has nothing to do with how UM’s season has gone or if they are even going to be post season eligible, it’s the fact that I can’t understand what’s going on with people confused like this?
To me it’s like you are speeding. You get caught by the cops. You admit that yes you were speeding. He issues you a citation. You don’t like the $$$ amount on the citation he wrote you. You ask him to reconsider it as he’s walking back to his vehicle. He drives off. You are still sitting there by the side of the highway 9 months later waiting for him to come back and say he was wrong, your speeding wasn’t all that bad as other people’s speeding and that you should be let off with a warning. Sorry but best analogy I can come up with for this situation.
What you talkin bout Willis? They appealed the sanctions because they were harsh compared to previous sanctions against other teams. Your analogy is not even comparable.
The analogy is ridiculous. If we are using that premise, it’s more like the cop fined the guy way more than anyone else for the same infraction. Punishment should be fair and even handed, but that’s just not the NCAA way. This is what happens when there is an obvious lack of leadership within an organization.
That’s not a valid analogy either. It’s more like you already have speeding tickets on your driving record. If you get one more speeding ticket, by law, the state will designate you as a habitual offender. This means you’ll get a regular speeding ticket fine for the next speeding ticket, plus 6 months suspended license as punishment for speeding so often that you get yourself classified as a habitual offender. Then, ask the judge to reduce your punishment for being a habitual offender while complaining that only you get your license suspended for 1 minor speeding ticket.
That’s not right either. When was Missouri classified an habituate offender? No matter, the ncaa should have already ruled on this appeal. It’s not like they are still gathering information.
It looks like we have some NCAA employees here pretending to be regular college sports fans. Ok you low-life liars. Here is your head, hold out your hands:
Missouri dismissed the cheaters, that’s right, they took away their chance to have a college degree from Missouri. I doubt that their transcripts are considered legitimate anymore. Same for the tutor. They are NOT still playing a sport of any kind at Missouri.
Where does an institution have a chance to stop these kind of cheaters ?, not in the coaches offices or in the dorms or in the frat. houses, no, the only person who can stop this kind of cheating is the person administering the test. Either know what your students look like or make the show an ID before you had them a test with a unique i.d.. Do you people who support the NCAA here have two brain cells to rub together ?
Gromit, you are a special kind of fact impervious sawdust-head. Missouri did not break the rules, that’s the whole point. The individuals broke the rules, got caught and were thrown out of college. The tutor not only took money for cheating she also has been accused of trying to extort money from the University by offering to not tell what she did to and with the cheating athletes. Is the rich taste of that double con lost on your dim wit ?
You can say what you want about modern sports journalists but in this case they have all come out defending Missouri and condemning the NCAA and that’s at the risk of having the NCAA black ball their careers. Not only are they right but they are righteous and courageous. Failing to grasp what they are doing here is like missing the most uplifting part of college sports journalism, maybe EVER.
Where was the NCAA when Clemson showed beyond the shadow of a doubt that they had an numerous football players taking Ostarine, Ostarine one of the most effective PEDs known. They were and still are nowhere to be heard from, just the opposite, they openly allowed them to call themselves NCAA Play-off champs.
Where was the NCAA when Jamis Winston committed crimes, then played in the biggest venues in NCAA sanctioned events ? Yes, quiet as a mouse. Did Oklahoma buy a house for one of the best football players every? Isn’t Barry Switzer saying they did? How many years of no bowls games did that get them?
I’m proud of the way Missouri handled this situation. I’m not proud of giant classes where students take exams like this but it’s happening at most every high enrollment institution in america. Jim Sterk and Barry Odom deserve credit for how the reacted to this, not punishment.
The NCAA is not just wrong here, they are painfully and embarrassingly wrong. It’s costing them ticket sales all over the nation right now. People are shaking their heads at this. They know the fix and the false enforcement farce is on. Do you trust an NCAA that gets something so wrong to protect college sports from the gambling industry? Hell no. Instead look what they are doing. They are caving in to California, the sanctuary state. Please don’t leave the NCAA, we will let you have professional players on your college football and basketball teams, if you will just not start your own pro-leagues for 18 year olds. It’s gutless and transparent.
Well said, Wolfman. Hear, hear!
It’s the NCAA–I would take the side of any school not named North Carolina or Duke.
Good grief.Aren’t there enough Missouri homers whining about this?