After a seemingly interminable investigation, the NCAA handed down its ruling on USC yesterday and found the Trojans guilty of major violations, including the real "biggie" in the mind of the NCAA - the dreaded lack of institutional control. The Trojans were hit in three sports, but most of the focus has been on football, where the most visible violations occurred.As punishment, the NCAA imposed a two year postseason ban, the loss of 10 football scholarships in each of the next three years and the vacation of all wins from December, 2004 through the end of the 2005 postseason. That, of course, included the Trojans national championship which USC won on January 4, 2005 and the 12 wins in 2005 that ended with a loss to Texas in the national title game in the Rose Bowl.
From the tenor of the commentary about the sanctions you would think that USC is just a hatr's breath away from the death penalty. But. really, is a two year postseason ban all that meaningful. Now, granted the loss of scholarships will be an issue with ramifications beyond the three years, putting USC behind in recruiting for probably the next five years, or the tenure of Lane Kiffin's successor. However, in the grander scheme of things, the NCAA has once again failed to use the most powerful weapon at its disposal short of the death penalty: a ban from television appearances. What was once commonplace in the days before SMU underwent the death penalty seems to have disappeared now that the schools and conferences have inked multi-gazillion dollars contracts or own their own networks. That's just the point - if you want sanctions to hurt, hit him where they will feel it the most and that's the pocketbook, and there is no better way to affect a school's pocketbook than to take away its television appearances and ban its conference from distributing television money to it that would reflect any foregone appearances. It's time that the NCAA unsheathed its most effective weapon and if a school is found guilty of a lack of institutional control - the worst offense in the NCAA's six inch thick rule book - doesn't deserve to be hit with the toughest penalties who does?
