NCAA punishment of Michigan State football shows its justice has 2 tiers
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Michigan State football broke the rules. Let’s be clear.
Its former football coach, Mel Tucker, continues to haunt the program. Let’s be clear about that, too. If the school is lucky, the NCAA’s tough penalties for recruiting violations could drastically reduce Tucker’s $75 million buyout.
And yet, what the NCAA did Wednesday, Nov. 12, hurts college football and feeds into the perception that the sport has a two-tiered system of justice.
It’s a bad look. An unfair look. A hypocritical look.
These are the optics, anyway, and it's long past time for the NCAA to do something about it.
If it can.
By rule, MSU football has no counter to the punishment the NCAA just handed down for recruiting violations. Those violations made a few players ineligible. Those ineligible players played in wins. Those wins are now vacated.
But with context?
It’s a joke. Buffoonery, even. And certainly, tone deaf. Not that the NCAA cares about tone, or conspiracy theories. And yet, it just played into them by vacating wins for the school that cooperated (MSU) and lionizing wins for the one (over in Ann Arbor, cough, cough) that did not.
To this day, Jim Harbaugh hasn’t said a word to the NCAA about his alma mater’s sign-stealing saga. Not that MSU folks would have reason to think Michigan football would get preferential treatment.
Why would they?
Certainly not after the NCAA finished its probe into the Wolverines’ cheating operation and admitted it had enough for a postseason ban … and instead opted solely to levy a fine on one of the wealthiest schools – and alumni bases – in the country.
The NCAA didn’t want to punish current or future players for the actions of a staffer who is no longer in the program. But it couldn’t vacate the Wolverines' wins? That would have protected players on the current team and those on future teams.
And before anyone says, "Well, the NCAA only vacates wins if players were ineligible or some other broken rule gave a team an onfield advantage," consider the NCAA's own words from its August report on U-M's sign-stealing:
“Harbaugh ran a program that was largely dismissive of rules compliance. There was little, if any, emphasis on following the rules.”
The NCAA said it didn’t find conclusive evidence that the sign-stealing affected the outcome of games. But by logic, if it finds a program “dismissive of rules compliance,” doesn’t that give it a competitive advantage?
Furthermore, if the governing body of college football had the discretion to withhold a postseason ban, then it had the discretion to vacate wins based on the violations and lack of institutional control it did find.
Like evidence of cheating, which should’ve given the NCAA infractions committee wiggle room.
Yet the NCAA didn’t use it and now looks worse for hammering MSU with vacated wins. Think about this, about the context.
Think about the fact that the school that paid travel expenses for recruits on unofficial visits must vacate wins, while the other school ran a “KGB”-esque operation and gets to keep its three-year run with 41 victories.
Its Big Ten championship trophy.
Its College Football Playoff championship trophy.
Never mind the nigh-unprecedented spy operation meant to suss out opponent’s signs. Or that the undisputed ringleader of that operation – Connor Stallions – stood on one sideline in a game, and the team on the other sideline –MSU – now must vacate its win from that day.
If there is a clearer image of the hypocrisy, it’s hard to imagine: The face of the biggest cheating scandal in recent college football history standing on the sideline for Central Michigan – wearing the school’s gear, despite still working for U-M – presumably spying on Michigan State. And yet MSU is the school vacating games for that 2023 season.
All this does is fuel the conspiracy theorists and give ammo to the millions of college football fans who think: Justice for me, but not for thee.
Again, MSU broke the rules. We can agree on that. The program is still paying for the Mel Tucker era. We can agree on that, too.
Neither of these truths should let the NCAA off the hook for what looks like hypocrisy. Yes, it followed its bylaws when handing out punishments in both cases. It also admitted it had wiggle room in its interpretation of those bylaws.
The NCAA could’ve sent a message to college football when it punished U-M.
Instead, it sent a message – a much worse one – when it punished MSU.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football NCAA punishment shows justice isn't equal
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