OT - UCLA Shabazz Muhammad ruled ineligible

Submitted by Leaders And Best on

UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad, the #1 basketball recruit in the country, was just ruled ineligible by the NCAA.

Pete Thamel @SIPeteThamel

UCLA announces Shabazz Muhammad is in eligible. No time frame listed. UCLA believes it unjust and will fight it. Not good for Bruins.

ken725

November 9th, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^

The NCAA had been investigating Muhammad for months involving alleged improper benefits he received in his recruitment from boosters of his Las Vegas AAU program and the alleged improper acceptance of airline flights for some of his recruiting visits. He chose UCLA over Kentucky and Duke.

Freshman Kyle Anderson was cleared to play by the NCAA last week after being investigated for potential recruiting violations. The NCAA said it found no evidence to substantiate such claims. The forward from Jersey City, N.J., was among the nation’s top recruits last spring and was projected to start Friday night’s game at Pauley.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/ncaa-rules-ucla-star-fres…

Tater

November 10th, 2012 at 8:41 AM ^

I wonder how long Duke will be able to sustain its reputation as "squeaky-clean?"  While their fans are probably saying something along the lines of, "No wonder we lost him" or "We really got lucky with Muhammad" on message boards right now, you have to wonder just how much it has cost Duke to assemble rosters with as much talent as traditionally dirty schools like UCLA and UK.

I am still in favor of getting rid of 95% of the rules and allowing kids to take money from anyone who wants to give it to them, because it would allow Michigan to compete on a level playing field with the cheaters.  When Michigan did decide to play on a level playing field with the cheaters during the Ed Martin era, Michigan had as much talent as anyone in the country.

Enforce the rules fully or get rid of them: why is it so difficult for the NCAA to level the playing field?

3rdGenerationBlue

November 10th, 2012 at 9:52 AM ^

Frankly I'd rather see Michigan lose a few games than cheat. It took well over a decade to recover from the damage done by Ed Martin. Also, please don't make it sound like "Michigan" decided to join the cheaters during the Ed Martin era. A few people were involved not the entire institution.

LSAClassOf2000

November 10th, 2012 at 5:49 AM ^

From the NCAA Division I Handbook:

"Receipt of a benefit by a prospective student-athlete or his or her relatives or friends is not a violation of NCAA legislation if it is determined that the same benefit is generally available to the institution’s prospective students or their relatives or friends or to a particular segment of the student body (e.g., international students, minority students) determined on a basis unrelated to athletics ability."

So, essentially, all the booster had to do to make this right by the NCAA - more or less - was to buy the same tickets for at least a vast majority of UCLA's 27,000 or so undergraduates based on some criteria which would be reasonably common to the group at large. The handbook also asks that you run the idea by the NCAA first, of course, before proceeding to make such purchases. Surely they had the funds to do that very thing, right? 

 

BumpNRun

November 11th, 2012 at 9:11 AM ^

Not surprised by the ineligibility as High School basketball is a very broken system. I'm more surprised at the NCAA acting BEFORE the player makes an impact.