When I first heard the NCAA had denied Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s request for eligibility this year, I had a smug knee-jerk reaction.
After all, Masoli led Oregon to the Rose Bowl last year and was a potential Heisman candidate this year, so without him, the Rebels are going to have a much tougher season, and our chances in the Egg Bowl have increased.
And even when thinking objectively, I can’t really disagree with the decision. Masoli was clearly violation the spirit of the rules and exploiting a loophole.
Nonetheless, does anyone honestly believe the NCAA would have denied Masoli’s request if he wanted to play at Texas or Alabama instead of a less prestigious like Ole Miss? The corrupt NCAA cabal is out of control.
The NCAA is run by the powerful elites who scoff at the notion of teams like MSU or Ole Miss having any success. And instead of banding together, we at the bottom of the ladder just laugh at each other’s misfortune.
We celebrate Masoli’s ineligibilty just like the Rebels laughed at us when the NCAA (after stringing him along for months) suspended Renardo Sidney for 40 games (1.3 season) over possible deals between Reebok and his father.
This was at the same time the NCAA allowed a player from a historically elite team (Kentucky’s John Wall) to play after only a two-game suspension (one of which was an exhibition game), even though it had proof he took money from an agent!
Did Alabama lose any scholarships over the textbook scandal? No! The NCAA made the Tide forfeit some games from previous seasons, as if that’s any relevant punishment — the NCAA can never wipe away our memories.
Sure, the NCAA did take 21 scholarships away from Alabama back in 2002, but even that was a very light penalty, considering Alabama was tapped with 10 major violations and was up for the death penalty.
Compare Alabama’s violations to the violations we committed which caused us to lose eight scholarships and 22 recruiting visits in our 2004 probation and you’ll see the punishments were far from proportional to the crime. I could fill up the entire newspaper comparing disproportionately light punishments for the historical powers.
No, the elites get off lightly while the peasants laugh at each other for getting the hammer. Sure, I’m glad we won’t have to face Masoli in November, but he’s yet another a victim of the shady NCAA.
The worst part of it is that we are powerless to change the system. That’s why we’ll just have to sit back and revel in Ole Miss’ misery, because that’s the only bone we’ll ever get.