I think its hard to know for sure what we're up against until the hearing later this week.
But as for blame, I think its a little from column A, a little from column B.
I love JB, as a life long Syracuse fan. But the guy runs the loosest ship out there--always has, always will. So he certainly deserves some "blame" for having some of the alleged things that are being investigated occur on his watch. I know that it is impossible to expect a major college program to be 100% above board [too unpredictable with college athletes doing dumb stuff all the time], but Boeheim's laissez faire approach let's more of this chicanery go on than should be tolerated. With a net result of--for better or worse, we now have a bunch of stuff for the NCAA to scrutinize.
But the NCAA's enforcement arm is a joke, as is the way they've handled several recent debacles with member institutions like Penn State, Miami, UNC, and Auburn. Their situational enforcement of the rules calls into question their impartiality, let alone the legitimacy of any penalties they might try to impose / enforce. It's tough to take a regulatory agency seriously when they are all over the board in terms of how they enforce the rules, especially when they show blatant favoritism / situational enforcement for some member institutions but not others. And in true keystone cops fashion, even their handling of this investigation with SU--given the multitude of press leaks, the timing of reports surfacing in the media, etc.--has been a fiasco.
The whole thing is a cluster. I'm just hoping that despite the NCAA dredging up old stuff, that none of it is a major violation. We'll see. My belief is that they are hoping that by stacking a bunch of minor violations together, the preponderance of a bunch of minor infractions will support their case for "lack of institutional control," which would be a big deal.
But like you, I've had my fill of that antiquated institution, that exists for no other purpose than to fulfill their own largess and siphon money off of member institutions who actually generate revenue. It would be a different thing entirely if the rules made sense, and if the NCAA actively enforced the rules with standards applied consistently across the board. But they don't, so instead they've become an irrelevant bureaucracy that makes no compunction about cowtowing to powerful constituencies, making a grand spectacle out of excessively punishing minor infractions when the opportunity for low hanging fruit presents a convenient scapegoat, and for being out of touch for what's best for the modern student-athlete. Mark Emmert's tenure over the NCAA has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster in just about every conceivable way.
I look forward to the P5 splitting from the NCAA in the near future. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
Go SU!
