College sports, as exciting as they can be at their best, are run by an organization that is almost laughably inept in many circumstances. There was a Marine that, after five years of service, was told he could not play for Middle Tennessee State without redshirting a year because he played in a recreational football league. A former Iowa State basketball player named KerwinOkoro, who later transferred to Rutgers because of the death of his father and brother in a short time period, was denied a hardship waiver even though the move was intended to have him be closer geographically to his family.
Freshman Nathan Harris of Colgate was denied a year of eligibility for playing three games in a church basketball league, which was later reversed. That's right - he played for a league at Dunwoody Baptist Church, which was initially deemed an unsanctioned league by the NCAA. A linebacker for the University of Maryland could not accept a game ball because "student-athletes are not allowed to receive gifts from their schools not available to other students."
This is just a short list of the numerous egregious rulings from the NCAA. Sometimes all it takes is some common sense to realize that what they're saying is outrageous.
Rules are necessary to keep an entity running with a sense of purpose and direction. However, I also find there to be truth in the statement that rules are flexible.
It's just too hard to make a "one-size-fits-all" rulebook. While a rule may be applicable in the majority of situations, it should not be applied the same way to every one. Rules should be administered in accordance with the situation at hand.
A U.S. Marine playing in a recreational football league is not equivalent to a recruit playing in an organized 7-on-7 league. To compare playing in the Dunwoody Baptist Church basketball league with something even remotely meaningful and competitive that should require repercussions is an insult to the rulebook itself.
I implore the NCAA to use common sense to get rid of these blemishes that show up all too often. It takes a national media uproar for them to "realize their mistakes" and appropriately change a situation when, in reality, the situation and punishment should have just been explicitly stated.
It's hard for me to believe that a group of grown, educated adults can sit around a table and all agree that the appropriate course of action for a young man who lost his brother and father in a two-month span is to punish him for transferring. Just saying it out loud should have been enough to have at least one person in the room say, "Wait, this isn't right," but apparently I'm wrong.
The ridiculousness of the NCAA is hard to explain. It could be the monopoly that they have on the college sports programs due to a lack of competition. If a school doesn't like it, what can they do about it? They can't reasonably pull out of the NCAA because of the revenue that it generates for the school and the other benefits of being in a conference or league.
So, what's the solution? Form a committee of independent advisors. Hire a group of outside individuals to which schools can submit proposals when they feel they have a situation that falls outside of the jurisdiction of the rules or needs special attention. Eliminate the bias of people who are viewing the rules through a narrow scope instead of taking it on a case-by-case basis.
It's a miracle that the NCAA has been able to carry on without any form of checks and balances. Their outdated and at times contradictory rulebook has proven to be ineffective for the multi-billion dollar business that is college sports. Until next time, NCAA - you're sacked!
Jordan Bean is a sophomore who is majoring in economics. He can be reached at Jordan.Bean@tufts.edu.
