The next few months could be interesting with OM

[AlSwearengen]

Let me get this straight. The have been busted for cheating with the Shea Patterson/Greg Little class AND the current recruiting class?

[PonderThis1]

There is no way I believe that they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar again. It is too good to be true.

That being said, let’s dream for a second. As harsh as the sanctions were reported to be before getting caught again, is the death penalty out of the question? And if they get it, who is going to be our new rival? Wouldn’t they get kicked out of the SEC if they got the death penalty? It is nice to dream about…

[thf24]

There is no way I believe that they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar again. It is too good to be true.

That being said, let?s dream for a second. As harsh as the sanctions were reported to be before getting caught again, is the death penalty out of the question? And if they get it, who is going to be our new rival? Wouldn?t they get kicked out of the SEC if they got the death penalty? It is nice to dream about?

According to precedent in the modern era, no, the death penalty is not on the table because it's reserved for "repeat offender" status. But, the NCAA can ultimately do whatever it wants, and if they've found violations so egregious that they feel they have to shut the program down (very unlikely), I could hypothetically see them deciding to apply repeat offender status to the fact that they've been busted for new cheating while already under investigation supposedly multiple times already. And yes, if they got the death penalty for more than a year, I don't see how the SEC could justify not booting them due to the scheduling issues it would cause across multiple seasons.

All that being said, barring the discovery of serious criminal corruption related to their athletic department, they're not getting the death penalty. Simply not going to happen. The NCAA stands way more to lose by shutting them down than it would gain by making that kind of example out of them. That's the main thing they're interested in here, making an example, and crippling them for 5+ years will do that just fine.