And I'm willing to admit I was very wrong. NCAA has impressed me with their fair and consistent punishment.
NCAA once again proves that it doesn't give a sh** about principles and just cares about money. It's fine to suspend players to prove a point up until that starts really affecting their bottom line. Go ahead and suspended wide receivers from smaller schools, but definitely not Heisman trophy winner from an SEC school with numerous top games scheduled.
This part: "the student-athlete (or the institution acting on behalf of the student-athlete) is required to take steps to stop such an activity in order to retain his or her eligibility for intercollegiate athletics" Now you could argue where the line is for eligible/broke the rule/ineligible, but it's still in there.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>To clarify: Manziel suspension for violating "spirit" of NCAA bylaw 12.5.2.1 & 12.5.2.2. NCAA couldn't prove he broke any rules source said</p>— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/McMurphyESPN/statuses/372823225350520832">August 28, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Official: A&M, NCAA agreed "no evidence" discovered Manziel took $. Agreed on suspension for "inadvertent violation." <a href="http://t.co/n7wk1wjAJb">http://t.co/n7wk1wjAJb</a></p>— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeSchroeder/statuses/372821469840961536">August 28, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Part of punishment, Manziel must address team on the situation and lessons learned. A&M must revise education on signing multiple autographs</p>— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeSchroeder/statuses/372826816605483008">August 28, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This is very bad for Rice. Before the suspension, Johnny was probably going to play the first two quarters, put up about 50 points, and then sit the rest of the game. Now, the backup QB will put up about 40 points in the first half, and then Johnny will start the second half and the crowd will go crazy and the Aggies may score 100 points for the game. It's going to be a bloodbath.
Lesson learned: if you want to make some extra cash, go sign a bunch of items but just make sure there's no evidence you got paid.
Gotcha, it seems to me a good lawyer could walk over the wording in this "by-law" and that seems to be exactly what happened. He will technically be "ineligible for one half of football". It's like the A&M lawyers/officials threw the NCAA a bone and said we'll agree to the first half of the season nothing more, nothing less.
That is just how I picture it so the NCAA will feel like they accomplished something when in fact they are a bigger joke than if he wasn't suspended at all IMO.
I still haven't heard one reasonable explanation why Manziel signed almost 5,000 autographs... On an unrelated note, the NCAA still has an investigation open against Miami U that has been open for 3 YEARS!
Want to see something funny? http://deadspin.com/a-m-website-tri...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
Just another example of the media working everyone up for absolutely nothing. We should have known better. I'm happy to see the kid play.
Can Johnny now sue the memorabilia broker who came forward with the story for slander? Since there's obviously no proof that he took money for the autographs, doesn't that technically make the broker a liar?
