Apologies to Rupert Murdoch for having a similar title as the slogan for his news channel, but I thought it was very appropriate after the onslaught yesterday involving the Memphis Tigers and Kentucky’s subsequent guilt by association. I’ve witnessed guilt by association in one place in my lifetime – every day in high school. It’s something I have a deep disgust for in my heart, and I wish it ceased to exist so we can get back to “innocent until proven guilty,” just like our forefathers envisioned.
Needless to say, the Kentucky program was reamed in every orifice yesterday on TV. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Kentucky fan, so there’s no doubt you saw some of this stuff. I certainly don’t feel like reiterating what any of them said, with a small exception for Vanderbilt grad Skip Bayless. Skip suggested that John Calipari should be suspended for a year. Now I realize that Skip gets paid to come up with asinine opinions and pass them off as fact. He’s good at it. But at some point, the asinine opinion is so asinine that it’s impossible to get it off with a straight face. That’s what happened yesterday. Sorry, Skip. Football isn’t going to get rid of kickers and the NCAA isn’t going to suspend John Calipari.
Or are they?
I’m not suggesting anything here, but after making the ruling they did yesterday with the amount of evidence they had, nothing would surprise me with the NCAA anymore. Bill Simmons would say they reached the Tyson Zone. In addition to the TV reaming the program got yesterday, they also got one from several major basketball columnists online. I’ll link as many of them as I can find, then give my own opinion on the subject and it will be up to you guys to decide what’s up.
Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Seth Davis, Coattail Rider and Colossal Tool – That’s right, I don’t like him much. Wanna fight about it?
Mark Story, Lexington Herald-Leader
And if you’d like some facts to go along with all of these op-ed pieces, here’s the actual NCAA report on their findings.
Of the dozen pieces I linked, I agreed the most with DeCourcy, which happens more often than not. To me, it all boils down to a few things. What more can a school do than allow a player to play when the NCAA clearinghouse cleared said player? Why did the clearinghouse clear Derrick Rose? Imagine getting an A on a test, then, after the end of the semester, your grade was changed to an F because you answered the questions on that test in English and the teacher decided after the fact that the answers should be in German. That’s probably a terrible example, but it’s the best I could do. Memphis ought to appeal this ruling, just because I think there are enough holes in the ruling for Memphis to win the appeal.
Finally, I don’t care what the people at ESPN have said, this will have little to no impact on the 2009-10 Wildcats, and for those who say it will, the burden of proof is in the hands of the prosecution – just like with this NCAA ruling. The defense rests.
Thanks for reading.
