NCAA rules MTSU Marine Vet immediately eligible

Submitted by Lionsfan on

Surprising nobody, the NCAA has accepted Middle Tennessee State's appeal to let Steven Rhodes play out his college eligibility, and reversed their earlier decision

Link

Chuck Norris

August 19th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^

At first it was, "I hate the NCAA because of its stupid, idiotic rules." Now it'll be, "I hate the NCAA because they're hypocritical bastards who can't even stick to their own rules when faced with any sort of public dissidence." Regardless, I hate the NCAA.

Zone Left

August 19th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^

To be fair, the process likely involves:

1. Filling information in on paper.
2. Develop ruling based on paper submission.
3. Deliver rulings to school.
4. Schools formulate appeals.
5. Deliver appeals to NCAA.
6. NCAA issues decision.

I think this is really a public paperwork drill. Since all paperwork drills are by definition lacking nuance, the NCAA is made to look stupid repeatedly when ADs decide to publicize results.

The NCAA sucks, but I think they need a pass for this.

Wolverine Devotee

August 19th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^

Didn't see that one coming.

The PR shit storm they have been through lately, they definitely deserve. 

LB

August 19th, 2013 at 7:45 PM ^

wasn't a lot of this brought on by the article that plainly stated (damn, I hate it when I have to go look things up to keep this crowd from chopping on me):

Well, it would be, except Rhodes isn’t eligible to play this season because he took part in an intramural league while in the service. He received no money to play in some extremely disorganized games.

Wasn't it explained that his intramural participation was not the actual reason for the ruling?

Edit: This post in not intended to appear in support of the NCAA in any way, shape, manner, or form.

LSAClassOf2000

August 19th, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^

"Members of the armed forces used to be completely exempt from that bylaw, but an alteration to it in 2011 changed the wording such that the military exception applied only to skiing and ice hockey. Judging by Lennon's statement, the NCAA may revisit the rule, which would probably be a good idea since this sort of incident does absolutely nothing positive for public perception of the NCAA." - from SBNation's piece

Well, it is nice to know that the NCAA still respected the contributions of those serving in the military to winter sports anyway. I am guessing that something similar to the original language gets restored eventually, and rightly so, I would say. 

grumbler

August 19th, 2013 at 8:36 PM ^

Yeah, it would be interesting to see which schools got the changes to those exemption words granted by their fellow schools, and why.  I am willing to bet that the schools didn't realize they were eliminating a larger exemption by changing the wording.

I like the fact that the university presidents themselves run the NCAA, but wonder if someone with some legal background might not be a good intermediary when writing and approving rules changes.

Tater

August 19th, 2013 at 8:41 PM ^

I would be a lot more impressed if I thought they were doing this because it is the right thing to do than to keep a shitstorm from happening.

CarrIsMyHomeboy

August 19th, 2013 at 11:29 PM ^

Why are we assuming the NCAA is responding to public outlash here as if that ever impacted them before?

The simpler explanation appears to be that they ruled him ineligible by the book, then on appeal addressed special extenuating circumstances to overturn that ruling and make him eligible.

Give the NCAA flack when it deserves it, but this seems more like the rarest case when they did everything right.

bronxblue

August 20th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^

Well, with this potential violation of the sanctity of the game rectified, one can only hope the NCAA turns its attention to even more pressing matters, like tucked-in jerseys and instant replay being shown on stadium screens.