Not gonna lie, after writing story on BSU's NCAA issues, seems pretty trivial compared to what else is happening around country.
In case you haven't heard, the NCAA dropped the dreaded "lack of institutional control" hammer onto the Boise State athletic department yesterday, exposing the seedy underbelly of ... Boise State women's tennis.
The allegations and violations technically spread across women's tennis, men's tennis, track and field, and football, but when you look at the big picture, what's really going on here is that the Broncos ran their women's tennis team like a Will Ferrell sports movie and there are NCAA rules against that. The Broncos fielded a women's tennis team with a player who wasn't even enrolled in school. Coaches gave the player cash, tuition expenses, and "impermissible entertainment." Am I the only one wondering how good of a WAC tennis player you have to be to get benefits like this? Was she a hot Billie Jean King? Let's see a report on that, NCAA.
The football team's crimes? Couch-hopping and carpooling. Thou shalt not arrange basic needs for prospects when they come on unofficial visits, per the NCAA, so Boise State's benevolence toward several future players during summer workouts was taboo. Fortunately, the media's response has been refreshingly level-headed. These are not the headline sins of Reggie Bush or Jim Tressel. These are trivialities. No sense for Gregg Doyel to get involved.
The NCAA report as it relates to Bronco football was so incredibly tame, it read like a lame How I Spent My Summer essay. Where was the free-flowing cash? The laptops? The Carl's Jr. coupons? If we're being audited on insignificant things, here are some more:
- Kellen Moore is left-handed. And on Facebook.
- The actual Bronco horse that rides around the stadium after touchdowns may be in love with Boise State mascot Buster Bronco. Forbidden love = NCAA violation.
- Do you like Chris Petersen's slacks? I love Chris Petersen's slacks. He got them at Ross.
- I once abbreviated the University of Stephen F. Austin as the Stephen F-ers. /self-reporting
So what does all this mean for the Boise State football team? The NCAA will hold a meeting of the minds on June 10 in Indianapolis where they will hear Boise State's case and decide on penalties. Suggestion: Less women's tennis, more lacrosse. No one in their right mind expects the football team to have anything bad happen to it, but as college sports fans have learned over the years, the NCAA does not always employ people in their right mind.
Here's hoping everything shakes out okay.