Several programs at Alabama were punished about six/seven months ago for participating in a textbook scandal. What happened was several athletes, across multiple sports, got textbooks for their classmates for no cost because the athletes had their books covered by their scholarship. The school was placed on probation for three years and also had to forfeit its wins in football, men’s tennis and track, for the period when the violations occurred. Bama decided to appeal to try and receive credit for the wins but that’s where the NCAA hammered them with these responses about Bama:
“Serial repeat offender.”
“Abysmal infractions track record.”
“An institution with an appalling and unprecedented recent infractions history.”
“Extensive recent history of infractions cases … unmatched by any other member institution in the NCAA.”
Wow. Good luck getting those wins back, Tide. They’re essentially saying don’t push your luck because the NCAA probably figures they can find out so much more if they really want to. The only thing I’ll say is that as far as infractions go, this is pretty low on the scale of right/wrong. Still, I think they got a good idea of what the NCAA thinks of them.
