The NCAA is a dirty, crooked self-serving piece of trash.
Oregon paid Lyles for recruits. He admitted it. Oregon's actual program paid for recruits. Oregon also tried to cover it up after the investigation started by having him fax over whatever bios he had on hand, which were all for the previous year. This is worse than Ohio State where players were paid by boosters (for shirts, rings or whatever) and Tressel didn't inform the NCAA. Oregon(not boosters) directly PAID FOR RECRUITS!!!!! Oregon (not the HC) tried to cover it up (not just didn't voluntarily report it).
Oregon proposes 2 year probation and loss of 1 schollarship for each of 3 years. Big deal.
OSU was hit with a 1 year bowl ban, loss of 3 schollarships for 3 years, Pryor and the others were allowed to play in the bowl game and agreed to 5 game suspensions the following year and then Pryor left and didn't face it, and Tressel can't coach for 5 years.
OSU didn't suffer enough. They got a better coach and recruiter in Urban Meyer. They had a 6-7 year under Luke Fickell and then went 12-0 and all the players got rings. OSU was #2 in recruiting rankings last year. They are better off than ever.
USC benefited for 6 years from Reggie Bush having been there, National Championships, OJ Mayo, recruiting better and better classes, before the NCAA did anything. The schollarship cut meant that USC just stopped taking 3 star athletes to supplement its 4 and 5 stars. Look at 2013 (5) 5 stars and (7) 4 stars. Wow, that lack of depth really hurts! If USC wasn't so stupid in hiring Lane Kiffin, the worst coach in college football, USC would be undefeated and playing for National Championships again year in and year out.
Auburn is now hearing rumblings. There is hard evidence Cam Newton's Dad solicited $200,000 for him to play elsewhere and that he got more money to play at Auburn. The NCAA knew it and let Cam play in the National Championship game anyway. Now we find out other players were paid and grades were fixed. Cam has played 2 years in the pros now and the NCAA still has done nothing.
Penalties for an actual program paying for recruits and players should be severe. Gut the program. No football for 3 years. Then start again from scratch.
Penalties for a program playing players that it knows or should have known got money from boosters should be less severe, but still significant -- USC, OSU, Miami, Auburn, North Carolina -- 4 years bowl bans; loss of 5 schollarships per year, can't sign any 5 stars and only (3) 4 stars per year as ranked by a comprehensive ranking averaging espn, , 247 athlon or whatever other services you want included, probation for 5 years; kick out any players who got benefits whether you knew or not and they can't play anywhere in FBS; vacate wins for games they played in and titles from that period of time and cash earned in bowl games and championship games.
Penalties for a program playing players who got benefits from boosters that the program didn't and shouldn't have known about -- the players get kicked out and can't play anywhere in FBS. The boosters and their immediate family are banned from the stadium and school property.
The NCAA isn't harsh enough on those schools -- Oregon, USC, OSU, Miami, Auburn, UNC -- because they are big wealthy schools that make a lot of money for the NCAA. The NCAA torches smaller programs.
SU -- accusations are: Several hoops players failed drug tests that aren't required by the NCAA to be given and were allowed to play; 3 hoops players allegedly sexually assaulted a girl and were allowed to play and were later found not guilty by the judicial board and the grand jury decided not to indict them; Fab Melo was ruled ineligible due to school work issues and didn't play; Southie was ruled ineligible for 6 games for academic reasons and didn't play.
If SU gets penalized at all, SU should be pissed. If the punishment is anywhere near as severe as Oregon or any of the other schools identified above, SU should sue the NCAA for being arbitrary and capricious and irreparable harm to its reputation.
