July, 15 2007

In a move that I feel is unjust and unfair the NCAA placed the University of Oklahoma on probation for two years and forfeit 2 scholarships for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 season as well as forfeiting all 8 wins from the 2005 season due to two players, including the Sooners' starting quarterback, who were kicked off the team last August for being paid for work they had not performed at a Norman car dealership. To me, even being a Die-hard Nebraska Cornhusker fan and hater of the University of Oklahoma I find this ruling to be overzealous and uncalled for.

How is the University supposed to monitor every single student’s activity on and off campus? That being the case, then why not carry this ruling of justice even further and ban schools from playing if a member of their team commits and is convicted of a criminal felony, shouldn’t the university be responsibly in that situation also and accountable for what the student is doing? Rhett Bomar and two other players were paid for work they did not perform at a Norman Oklahoma car dealership in 2005. As soon as head coach Bob Stoops found out about this situation he immediately suspended Bomar and the other two players from the team. Oklahoma has banned athletes from working at the car dealership until at least the 2008-09 academic year and moved to prevent the athletes' supervisor at the dealership, Brad McRae, from being involved with the university's athletics program until at least August 2011.

Even though the players deceived both the university and the car dealership, I guess the NCAA feels that universities should have some sort of crystal ball that allows them to know when crimes are committed and prevent the crimes/violations from ever being committed. WOW, just think if this could be used in the real world. If the NCAA doesn’t reverse this ruling, I just can’t see how they feel that justice is being done by this punishment. It is one thing for a school to simply burry their head in the sand when coaches violate the NCAA rules, but in this case there is no way the Oklahoma staff could have know what the business was doing and prevented it from happening. I may not be a fan of Oklahoma football, but I do believe that justice was not served in this ruling.

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