Quote Originally Posted by Political Hack View Post
politics. NCAA is trying so hard to be important and the only way that ever happens is when a school allows themselves to be punished. People forget that the NCAA has ZERO legal authority. they're a group. They have as much legal authority to come to your house and demand an interview with you as your local volunteer fire department has. They rely on VOLUNTARY membership of institutions. At some point, and it will be soon IMO, the conferences will govern themselves. The political stranglehold and financial extortion of the volunteer universities will only last so long.

Think about this... how often do Duke, UK, UNC, and other big basketball programs get hammered and banned from post season play? it's rare in basketball despite everyone knowing how "involved" the AAU network is in getting players to go to certain schools. You want to know why major probation involving post season bans doesn't occur in basketball???? It's because the NCAA makes 80+% of it's money on the tournament. If they ban UK, Duke, or UNC from post season play they're cutting into their own pocket book. Meanwhile, they can go after football because they don't get nearly as much money from football programs.
Yup, this is political. The NCAA is fighting for their lives right now. They are in a major predicament because the money schools are very close to leaving and their entire model is about to get rocked with court cases. Whatever they are working on right now, I am sure is an attempt to justify their value without blowing up the system.

I can't say that it will happen, but UM is a perfect target for them in this situation. They are one of the poorest schools in the SEC and have dared to challenge the real money schools. They have also been defiant in the face of the NCAA. The SEC office could really give two shits about UM going on probation. It would allow the SEC to offer the sacrificial lamb without putting up Auburn or some other valuable franchise. Nailing UM to the wall would allow them to demonstrate they still have teeth in the power conferences.

All of this is just the death nell though. The NCAA should just give up the big 5 and go back to protecting competition for those schools that are not semi-pro organizations masquerading as colleges. It's just sad more than anything. The only people being protected are the people that make money on what the NCAA does.