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We’ve all heard the saying that even a “blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while” well that’s how I feel about the NCAA ruling yesterday to restore 8 wins originally taken from the Oklahoma Sooners football program in the 2005 season. If you recall some of my earlier postings, I was ranting about the NCAA needing to recognize that it can only fix things moving forward and cannot attempt to rewrite history. Perhaps someone in Kansas was reading this blog? I doubt it but none the less, it was nice to see that justice was served.
I have never been for the “rewriting” of history, it doesn’t serve a purpose. It also goes against our sensibility as human beings because we watches the games that Oklahoma won in 2005, we know they won them and then some “Governing Body” is going to tell us disregard what we watched and pretend it didn’t happen. Well, it doesn’t work that way and deep down I think the NCAA is beginning to understand this.
The real test for me will be what they do when all the information is out about ex-USC Trojan and former Heisman winner Reggie Bush. As you know from my past work, if the NCAA tries to take wins away from USC or even their 2004 National Title, it will be one of the silliest and morally bankrupt rulings in the history of college sports. Like Oklahoma’s situation, what may have went on with Bush was not institutional in that USC did not know of it nor did they condone it.
Anyway, enough with USC and Reggie Bush for now. I am taking this time to give kudos to the NCAA for giving Oklahoma their wins back. Now the 2005 Oklahoma Sooners can proudly say that they were 8-4 rather than 0-4 as the NCAA has originally dictated. LOL
3 responses so far ↓
1 CWilson // Feb 24, 2008 at 11:38 am
We can’t fix all things by trying to fix them going forward. There has to be consequences. I am o.k. with the NCAA penalizing teams for rule infractions. The rules are the rules. I have been at a school with a small football budget and at a school with a big football budget and support. I understand why some of these rules are in place. When schools break them, they need to pay the piper. Fixing everything going forward would be like telling a murder, o.k. we are going to let you go this time but if you do it again….
Hey, don’t you think the track athletes who get caught on dope should give up any medals or world records?
2 Emil Calomino // Feb 24, 2008 at 2:59 pm
So what happens if the Patriots did tape the Rams? Should the Rams, Panthers and Eagles then be declared Super Bowl champions the years New England beat them? I don’t think so. What if Jason Giambi hit a HR to win a playoff game and knock a team out of the playoffs? He cheated, what do we do then?
In life people, companies and teams break rules, you can’t try to recreate history sort of speak. I mean you can try but the bottom line is that we know what we saw.
As I said before, the NCAA can tell me that Michigan wasn’t in the Final Four in 1992 and 1993 but I along with most Americans know they were and continue to recognize the event that way. Striking wins, records etc. is for historians and even then it is noted that “Team A played in the Final Four” or “Won this title” but “Due to NCAA infractions were deemed ineligible”. This footnote in essence recognizes the team’s accomplishment anyway for generations to come.
Most people don’t know that UCLA was deemed to have not played in the 1980 title game vs Louisville due to infractions imposed year’s later. However, I still watch Darrell Griffith and Louisville beating them in that title game. You cannot change the past, I agree rules need to be adhered to and there needs to be consequences but it should be in the present not in the past.
3 Emil Calomino // Feb 24, 2008 at 3:04 pm
PS- Chad, great example with track they do take back records and medals thus nobody gives a damn about the sport! More people watch the PGA Tour than a track meet on NBC. Half the athletes or more in track cheat and years later their records and medals are taken back when nobody remembers or gives a hoot. Track’s governing body is one of the reasons people who like sports barely pay attention to present events because they know they might find out 5 years later that they wasted an afternoon watching and caring only to find out that the “records no longer count”. You aren’t winning this discussion using track as an example.
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