There is a full slate of college football games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but after Notre Dame was forced to forfeit 21 wins in 2012 and 2013 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for academic violations, can anyone trust that any games that are played with a definite winner and loser will not eventually be overturned for some reason?
The NCAA found academic misconduct at Notre Dame committed by a former student athletic trainer and two football student-athletes. The student trainer also gave six other football players help.
Meanwhile the NCAA seems to have turned a blind eye to what may have happened at Baylor University. Two women who claimed to have been gang raped by a number of Baylor football players in 2012 signed off on a financial settlement on Tuesday,
There should be some questions about integrity of the NCAA and college football here. Notre Dame won the games, they were played. TV networks gave Notre Dame and college football money for the right to show those 21 Notre Dame wins that are now losses or games that never took place. People paid money to see those games in person, Notre Dame marketing partners put up cash so their products could be sold with the Notre Dame logo or on signage inside the stadium and that also applies to Notre Dame opponents.
If things were that bad, shouldn’t the NCAA give refunds now that those games are not bona fide competition? The NCAA is a private organization that is propped up partly by government legislation from tax breaks to TV contracts to disallowing betting on college games. The NCAA can do whatever it wants.
The college sports governing body decided Notre Dame committed a grave crime while the problems at Baylor seem to be ignored and will be handled by the college and lawyers. The NCAA thinks college sports is purer than Caesar’s wife. It’s not.
By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.