Here's an exerpt from an article in in the Louisville Courier Journal about the probation the Kentucky football program was put on yesterday. Please read and see my response below. ---------------- LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Assailing ''one of the more serious cases'' it has heard in recent years, the NCAA committee on infractions banned the University of Kentucky football team yesterday from postseason play next season and placed it on probation for three years. The bowl ban was the first handed down by the committee since 1995, when the University of Miami received a one-year ban and had 31 scholarships taken away for violations that included massive Pell Grant fraud. ''The postseason penalty is viewed as a very big hammer,'' Yeager said. ''There's a number of hammers, but postseason (ban) is a very big one and it is imposed in only the most serious of cases.'' ''We need to evaluate whether we feel this is fair and appropriate,'' Todd said of the bowl ban. ''The greatest punishment is really on our student athletes and the coaches who have taken over a program that was in trouble.'' ---------------- Maybe Mr Todd is forgetting something: YOUR FOOTBALLL TEAM FREAKIN' SUCKS! Did he honestly think they had a shot at a friggin' bowl game next season? I think they got of EASY on that count. That would be like telling Rice they can't compete in the NCAA basketball tourney this year -- it wasn't going to happen anyway. A better penalty, in my opinion, would be for the NCAA to keep the bowl appearance money the NEXT time Kentucky gets a bowl invitation...whatever decade that might be.
To make this ruling effective...they should have applied this ban to the basketball team. Then things would REALLY clean up at UK!
Alabama certainly got b**** slapped today: Alabama's NCAA Penalties Self-imposed by the university: *Disassociated one booster for 10 years, a second for five years, and a third for seven years. *Reduced scholarships by eight, to 17, in 2002-03; by four, to 21, in 2003-04; and by three, to 22, in 2004-05. *Reduced the number of official paid visits for recruits by 22 in 2001-02, by 12 in 2002-03, and by 10 in 2003-04. *Reduced the number of football coaches who can recruit off-campus at any one time from seven to six from December 1, 2001, through December 1, 2002. *Ceased to recruit prospects from eight Memphis high schools from December 1, 2000, through December 1, 2001. Additional penalties imposed by the NCAA: *Public reprimand and censure. *Five years of probation from February 1, 2002. This period coincides with the length of time in which the university is subject to the repeat violator rule. *The institution's football team will end its 2002 and 2003 seasons when it plays its last regularly scheduled, in-season contest and will not be eligible to participate in any bowl game or exempt preseason game. *The university will reduce the permissible limit of 25 scholarships to 17 in 2002-03; to 18 in 2003-04; and to 19 in 2004-05. ... Further, the university will reduce the total number of football counters available from 85 to 80 during each of those years. *For the period of the probation, the university will prohibit all boosters from: traveling on football team charters; attending football team practices normally closed to the public; and participating in any fashion with the university's football camps to include the donation of funds to the camps. *The institution will disassociate a fourth booster for at least a three-year period based upon his involvement in violations of NCAA legislation. TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- The NCAA banned Alabama from bowl games for two years Friday, cut scholarships and placed the storied football program once run by the late Bear Bryant on probation for five years because of a recruiting scandal. The sanctioning organization said it considered giving the Crimson Tide the most severe punishment, the "death penalty," but decided against it. "They were absolutely staring down the barrel of a gun," said Thomas Yeager, chairman of the infractions committee. He described the case as one of the worst heard by the panel. The university was accused of 11 major violations and five minor charges under two former coaches. Alabama contested the two most publicized charges involving claims of boosters making five-figure payments to lure two recruits. But it admitted some violations and imposed penalties on itself, including a reduction of 15 scholarships over three years and the temporary disassociation of three boosters it said were at the heart of the recruiting scandal. The NCAA took those punishments and added more, reducing the number of football scholarships the school can award by 21 over three years. It also said the university would face tougher penalties if it did not permanently disassociate the boosters. President Andrew Sorensen blamed the case on "rogue boosters" and said the university would appeal. The school had not proposed any ban on bowl games. "It is our firm conviction that the additional penalties are not supported by violations acknowledged by the university or found by the committee," Sorensen said. The NCAA began investigating Alabama in April 2000 for alleged violations that occurred mostly under former coach Mike DuBose, who was not charged with wrongdoing. None of the accusations involves current coach Dennis Franchione or his staff. "The coaches, the players, and I now must roll up our sleeves and work that much harder to sustain and restore Crimson Tide football," Franchione said. The university's response to NCAA charges last year contended that accusations of a $20,000 payment to prospect Kenny Smith in the mid-1990s fell outside the governing body's statute of limitations. Gene Stallings, who was coach at the time, also was not accused of wrongdoing. Alabama officials also argued that the NCAA couldn't prove that high school coaches for Memphis prospect Albert Means received money to steer the defensive lineman to Alabama, or that any money was linked to Tide booster Logan Young. But the NCAA said a booster agreed to give Means' coach $115,000 to get Means to sign with Alabama. The NCAA also said three payments of $10,000 were made, but it wasn't clear if former Trezevant High School coach Lynn Lang ever delivered the money to Means. Means signed with the Tide, but has since transferred to Memphis. Young, a Memphis businessman, was one of the boosters dissociated from the university. He has denied any wrongdoing in the recruiting of Means. Alabama has severed ties with Young, Wendell Smith and Raymond Keller, though all have denied giving improper benefits to the recruits. The university will have no association with the boosters for periods ranging from five to 10 years. Lang, meanwhile, was indicted last August on one count of conspiracy, two counts of traveling across state lines to promote bribery and six counts of using his official position to try to extort money and property. Alabama's football program was placed on three years' probation in 1995 after All-American defensive back Antonio Langham admitted signing with a sports agent the morning after the Tide gained the national title with a Sugar Bowl win over Miami. Langham then returned for his senior season. The NCAA stripped Alabama of 26 scholarships, forced the Tide to forfeit eight victories from 1993 and imposed a one-year postseason ban. Alabama would later win an appeal, getting one year of probation lifted and nine scholarships restored. The football program has struggled to recover from the blow, going 4-7 in 1997 and 3-8 in 2000 to force DuBose's resignation. However, Alabama's basketball program avoided sanctions in 1999 following claims that a former assistant basketball coach, Tyrone Beaman, tried to create a slush fund for recruits. The NCAA praised Alabama's handling of the case.
If you aren't eligible for bowl games or are on probabtion, you aren't eligible for bowl money. Each SEC school made around 2.5 million from bowl money this year, neither Kentucky nor Alabama will get that money. That being said, for a repeat offender(95, 99, and current) and such an egregious offense, Alabama got off very, very light.
