Double Standards

There has been a lot of talk lately that the NCAA is not completely fair and equal when handing out punishments to schools and student athletes, and I am inclined to agree. In just one season, we can see the double standard appear twice in favor of a school headed to a BCS bowl game.

Right before Christmas, the news broke that several Ohio State Buckeye football players had been receiving discounted or free tattoos in exchange for autographs and memorabilia. Immediately after the story broke, Buckeye star quarterback Terrelle Pryor tweeted, "I paid for my tattoos. Go Bucks." That statement was proven to be an outright lie the next day, when Pryor and four teammates were found guilty of receiving illegal benefits and suspended for the first five games of next season, but not for this year's Sugar Bowl. The NCAA's explanation for not holding the players out of the Sugar Bowl was that they "did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred."

Now let's change that scenario just slightly. Let's say that the team in question does not look like they are headed to a BCS bowl game. Make it one star player instead of five. Keep the details about the sale of memorabilia and a school from a power conference. You may recognize this as the situation surrounding Georgia's star wide receiver A.J. Green, who was suspended for the first 4 games of this season for selling his Independence Bowl jersey for cash. The only real difference between these two situations? Ohio State was appearing in a BCS bowl, and Georgia most likely wasn't. The fact that this incident was well-publicized and occurred less than four months ago blows some major holes in the NCAA's statement about the Buckeyes' players being ignorant of the rule, especially since Green also claimed to be unaware of the same rule. While I don't necessarily agree with the rule itself, the important point here is that the NCAA gave favorable treatment to the better team and allowed them to win a BCS bowl game and the huge payout that accompanies it.

Also this year, Cam Newton, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Auburn, was accused of soliciting money from colleges hoping to gain his services this season, a clear violation of NCAA rules if true. It has since been proven that his father received an offer of $180,000 from a booster representing Mississippi State University, but that Newton turned down that offer, telling the booster he was going to attend Auburn instead, because "the money is too much." That statement could be read a couple different ways. It could mean that Newton didn't accept the money because someone would surely notice if he suddenly had a lot more money or more expensive things. It could also mean that he was offered more money by somebody representing Auburn, a real possibility that I believe was not fully investigated due to Auburn's #1 ranking at the time the scandal broke. How likely is it that anyone would turn down $180,000 for any reason, especially somebody who has proven dishonesty in his recent past. While Newton was at the University of Florida a couple years ago, he was caught with a stolen laptop computer, which he proceeded to throw out the window when the police arrived. He was also on the verge of academic suspension for repeated attempts at cheating when he left the University. Does that sound like the kind of person who would decide to follow the rules this time?

Once again, let's shift the scenario a little bit. Let's make the situation included multiple starters from a power conference team rather than one Heisman-quality player. Decrease the amount of money received substantially. What we get is the case of North Carolina football players Greg Little and Robert Quinn, who were among several Tar Heel players suspended for multiple games at the beginning of the season on suspicion of receiving illegal benefits. When the investigation was complete, Little and Quinn were declared permanently ineligible for receiving about $5000 each in benefits. Once again, these two events occurred in the same season. North Carolina, who was not a favorite to earn a BCS berth, lost a huge portion of their starting lineup for a huge chunk of the season based solely on suspicion. Even when the evidence against Newton was proven to be accurate, the NCAA avoided suspending him, once again playing the ignorance card, claiming that Newton did not know what his father was doing. Even if he didn't know that his father was trying to make money off him, which is highly unlikely, the rules state that no player or person claiming to represent a player, including a family member, can attempt to solicit money in exchange for a player's services, with our without the player's knowledge. So why wasn't Newton suspended? The only explanation is that he was the clear Heisman favorite, and Auburn was headed toward the BCS national championship game.

The whole situation seems eerily similar to that of Reggie Bush and USC 5 years ago. While he was still in school, rumors started to surface that he may have received illegal payments in exchange for attending school at USC. The investigation started soon after Bush left school a year early, much as Newton is likely to do, and resulted in him forfeiting his Heisman Trophy and USC giving up a national championship and over 20 wins over the time Bush was on the team. Sadly, since it didn't happen until much later, USC was allowed to play in two national championship games, which left other deserving teams (ironically, one of them was Auburn) out of the national championship game, so the national title is awarded to the runner-up rather than the two best rule-following teams from that year actually deciding the winner on the field. This season may be headed to that same result. Whether Auburn wins or loses doesn't really matter. The fact that they are in the national championship game, with the great possibility that the result will be changed in the future, means that a very deserving undefeated TCU team was not given the chance to play Oregon for the national championship, and the title will eventually belong to the Oregon Ducks, win or lose, without having to play the Horned Frogs on the field.

So does the NCAA give preferential treatment to school that are BCS caliber? According to the evidence that I have seen in this season alone, the answer is a resounding YES. The lack of fairness by the NCAA in handing out punishments is just as much of a threat to the integrity of the college football system as the lack of a playoff system.

NBA Player of the Day

Rudy Gay - MEM - 28 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl, 8-14 FG, 3-3 3P, 9-10 FT
Gay scored 28 points on just 14 field goal attempts as the Memphis Grizzlies upset the favored Utah Jazz for their third straight upset win over a playoff team. The Jazz were able to get as close as 6 points late in the game, but Gay scored 6 points in the final 3 minutes to put the game away.

NBA Rankings - 27 Dec

Only four teams went undefeated during the week of Christmas, which kept most teams from moving around too much. There were a few very surprising upsets, which made all the difference in who stayed ahead and who fell behind. So here it is, my final NBA ranking of the year 2010. Team name is followed by this week's record, overall record, rating, and previous ranking.

1. Miami (2-1) (22-9) -8.86 (2)

2. Boston (1-1) (23-5) -7.37 (1)

3. San Antonio (3-1) (26-4) -6.20 (3)

4. Dallas (2-0) (23-5) -5.81 (5)

5. LA Lakers (0-2) (21-9) -4.14 (4)

6. Chicago (3-1) (19-10) -4.01 (7)

7. Orlando (2-2) (18-12) -3.24 (8)

8. Utah (2-0) (21-9) -2.80 (6)

9. New Orleans (2-1) (18-12) -2.35 (10)

10. Oklahoma City (2-1) (21-10) -1.61 (11)

11. Denver (0-3) (16-13) -1.21 (9)

12. Houston (2-0) (14-15) -0.47 (13)

13. Atlanta (2-1) (19-13) -0.23 (15)

14. Portland (1-1) (15-15) 0.27 (17)

15. Memphis (1-1) (13-17) 0.31 (16)

16. New York (2-0) (18-12) 0.44 (20)

17. Philadelphia (1-2) (12-18) 0.68 (12)

18. Milwaukee (2-1) (12-16) 1.25 (19)

19. Indiana (1-1) (13-15) 1.37 (14)

20. Phoenix (0-3) (13-16) 1.56 (18)

21. LA Clippers (2-1) (9-22) 4.19 (23)

22. Golden State (2-1) (11-18) 4.38 (24)

23. New Jersey (1-1) (9-21) 5.14 (25)

24. Detroit (1-1) (10-20) 5.35 (26)

25. Toronto (0-1) (10-19) 5.80 (21)

26. Charlotte (0-2) (9-19) 6.61 (22)

27. Washington (1-2) (7-21) 6.96 (28)

28. Minnesota (1-2) (7-24) 7.15 (27)

29. Sacramento (0-2) (5-22) 8.92 (30)

30. Cleveland (0-3) (8-22) 8.93 (29)

Rising like smoke

Portland jumped three spots this week, but not necessarily because of their own work. They had an impressive win over the Milwaukee Bucks, but their loss to the Warriors, even though it was on the road, does not look good for a team struggling to make the playoffs. They moved up because the teams they passed, Indiana, Memphis, and Philadelphia, all struggled mightily this week, thereby making the Blazers look like monsters by comparison.

The New York Knicks bounced back from their 3-game losing streak with two straight home wins over top 10 teams, the Thunder and the Bulls. Maybe their big winning streak wasn't just a result of the easy schedule. Maybe Amare Stoudemire really did bring a winning attitude to New York. Only time will tell, but for now they look like they're for real.

Falling like snow

Last week I put the Philadelphia 76ers up at #12, despite their losing record overall, mostly due to their recent hot streak. That all changed the next night, when they lost to Chicago by 45 points. Their close loss to the Celtics and a win over the Melo-less Nuggets looked all right, but no good team should ever lose by 45.

The Indiana Pacers, despite some promise early in the season, have been slowly dropping all month long. In fact, they have yet to win two straight games during the entire month of December, and their only chance may be back-to-back games against the Wizards to end the calendar year.

The Toronto Raptors played only one game in the past week, and it sure wasn't the game you would want to be your only memory of a week. They lost by 22 points at home to the Detroit Pistons, who aren't exactly playoff material. They take a road trip to Memphis, Dallas, and Houston this week, so they most likely won't have many good memories of this week either.

Charlotte's two losses this week, by 33 to Washington and by 18 to Oklahoma City, were enough to cost legendary coach Larry Brown his job. This team made the playoffs last year, so the talent is there, but will Paul Silas be able to turn them around in time to avoid missing the playoffs yet again?

Side note

Utah's 2-spot drop this week despite not losing may look strange on paper, but the two wins were over Cleveland and Minnesota, and the average margin of victory in those two wins was only 8 points. Utah is still a quality team, and they will hopefully prove it this week when they take on the surging Trail Blazers and Clippers.

NBA Player of the Day

Rudy Gay - MEM - 30 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 5 stl, 11-20 FG, 3-3 3P, 5-5 FT

Gay led the Grizzlies in scoring and filled up most of the stat sheet last night, with a strong night rebounding and 5 steals out of his team's 7 overall. He also hit a 17-foot jump shot with just over 6 minutes left that gave the Grizzlies a 10-point lead that they never relinquished.

Predictions - 27 Dec

Upset picks are in italics.

NBA

Magic at Nets - Magic by 6

Pistons at Bobcats - Bobcats by 2

Hawks at Bucks - Bucks by 1

Hornets at Timberwolves - Hornets by 7

Mavericks at Thunder - Mavericks by 1

Raptors at Grizzlies - Grizzlies by 8

Wizards at Rockets - Rockets by 10

Trail Blazers at Jazz - Jazz by 6

Clippers at Kings - Clippers by 2

76ers at Warriors - 76ers by 1

NFL

Saints at Falcons - Falcons by 7

College Football

Air Force vs. Georgia Tech - Air Force by 6

College Basketball

Tennessee-Martin at (2) Ohio State - Ohio State by 43

(4) Connecticut at (6) Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh by 9

Northern Illinois at (10) Missouri - Missouri by 24

Morgan State at (25) Louisville - Louisville by 33

I hope that the UConn-Pitt game is a bit of a blowout, because I don't believe that UConn deserves the ranking they have, but if they win, they will most likely earn a spot it my top 10, because Pittsburgh has already shown it's a very solid team.

Prediction Results - 26 Dec

NFL: 7/12 (.583) 57/94 overall (.606)

NBA: 3/7 (.429) 191/261 overall (.732)

College Football: 0/1 (.000) 42/59 overall (.712)