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Dear NCAA,
Hello, it's Chris Cox again. Remember me? The one who constantly pesters for interviews, yet you joyfully give me the runaround on each occasion? I write this letter not as a young, aspiring journalist, but rather as a fan of intercollegiate athletics.
You see, I have a little beef with how you conduct disciplinary actions amongst your schools. My school, the University of South Carolina, recently submitted 14 secondary violations to your wonderful corporation. Among those "violations" were recruits taking part in a simulation of the 2001 introduction at Williams-Brice and student-athletes receiving "impermissible snacks during away-from-home contests." (By the way, Little Debbie and Cheese Whales send their sincerest apologies.)
The problem your faithful critic has with these is the lack of discipline involved with the aforementioned violations. To be quite frank, your BCS and student-transfer shenanigans aside, your so-called "secondary violations" are laughable. Why even have violations when there are no repercussions for a school's actions?
The interesting take is that if all these schools receive as punishment is a slap on the wrist, it will condone the continuation of the issues. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks recently pointed that out to the Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee.
"I think that some of these things are not accidental," Brooks said. "Everybody that is a head coach or a recruiting coordinator in this league understands what the rules are. Something really should change.
If not, it's going to force everybody to have secondary violations because there's no question they can gain a slight advantage with some of the things that have going on."
Is that what you want to be known as? Cheaters? Certainly not the NCAA! (That whole Reggie Bush-O.J. Mayo-Southern Cal thing never happened.) Your lack of care towards penalty is leaving the door open for fools like Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin to run amuck amidst actual coaches. The Kiffin-led Volunteers have committed six football-related violations since December alone - tops in the SEC.
Look at Ohio State for further evidence. The Ohio Dispatch reported that the Buckeyes' athletic program averages more than 40 violations per year. (All that cheating certainly hasn't helped in the BCS National Championship, has it?)
So how do we solve this problem? For starters, let's concentrate on cracking down on violations instead of trying to rip down Bobby Bowden's program at every turn or worrying about what new ludicrous rules you can come up with. Second, let's narrow the field. I'm pretty sure we can do without such regulations like group fan pages on Facebook that plead for recruits to attend their school.
Finally, let's get serious! Put the hammer down! When a school commits a violation for a serious offense, let's punish them like a red-headed stepchild.
No more taking away wins (which is pointless, by the way) or placing schools on imaginary probations. Let's start taking money out of coaches' salaries. If that was the case, Kiffin would be on an hourly minimum wage by now.
In closing, NCAA, I trust you found this letter informative and enlightening. Now get cracking, before we have to put Alabama on double-secret probation again.
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