TCU imposes penalties on men's track team

[vaultguru6]

Another reason to hate the NCAA!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?sec ... id=1981645


FORT WORTH, Texas -- The TCU men's track team will not participate in the NCAA indoor or outdoor championships this year and has reduced scholarships and on-campus recruiting visits in response to an ongoing NCAA investigation.

The self-imposed penalties announced Tuesday are part of an investigation that has uncovered numerous violations. Additional penalties could be imposed after the investigation is completed.

"Violations took part in the men's track and field program under the previous coaching staff," TCU athletic director Eric Hyman said. "Unfortunately, there are consequences for that conduct, which is what we are now facing. We believe these initial self-imposed disciplinary actions are an appropriate component of our overall response to a very serious situation."

Former coach Monte Stratton was fired in September, and associate coach Brad Bowman resigned for what the school said were "serious improprieties" in the program. University officials still have not addressed the nature of the alleged

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has reported that Stratton provided airfare and living expenses to international athletes.

The team will not take part in the 2005 NCAA championships, as a whole or individuals. Scholarships will remain at 10.1 per year, 2.5 fewer than allowed by the NCAA, and on-campus visits by recruits will be reduced.

"There is never a good time to face disciplinary actions," said new coach Darryl Anderson. "However, we agreed it was best to take these preliminary steps now. Our focus this season will be to compete for a conference championship and continue to move the program forward."

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Now is it just me, or does it seem absolutely ridiculous to everyone else that penalties for violations performed by coaches should be imposed on the athletes??? What did the athletes do wrong??

Ok....in this situation athletes did do something wrong. They accepted illegal money from the coaches. So punish those athletes! Not the whole team! Take away a year of their eligibility. Make them pay back the money they accepted. But don't impose penalties on innocent athletes who just want to compete.

I totally understand that the NCAA needs to reprimmand universites for violations, but they go about it in an entirely wrong way. Once again it comes down to money. Why not fine the TCU athletic department $500,000 for their violations? Oh wait, thats right, that would go against the purpose of college athletics: money. But honestly, wouldn't that hit home a lot more than holding innocent athletes out of competitions which they have worked a whole season and career toward?

Maybe even on top of a fine to the athletic department, colleges should start incorporating monetary punishments into the contracts of coaches if violations are consciously and willingly committed. I can guarantee you that if a coach knew he could be fined $50,000 for committing a violation, there would be a lot less of them.

Point is, again the NCAA has their head up their a** and has lost all sight of the purpose of their organization: to provide student athletes with a venue in which to compete. How does taking away this venue from kids who didn't do anything wrong help anybody?

Soon all student athletes are gonna become as fed up with this crap as me and bring the NCAA down from within. There are so many rules that are unconstitutional and others like this that just make absolutely no sense. NCAA is going down at some point. Hopefully sooner rather that later.

[ashcraftpv]

The self-imposed penalties announced Tuesday are part of an investigation that has uncovered numerous violations. Additional penalties could be imposed after the investigation is completed.

These were imposed by TCU, not the NCAA. I think it still sucks for any of the potential NCAA qualifiers on their team, but they'll still get to compete this year, just not at NC's. Basketball and Football programs do this all the time. Breaking some rules is just as much the athletes fault in some cases as the coach's fault, as ignorance of a rule is not a justification for breaking it. When rules are broken, enforcement needs to happen at the institutional/team level, otherwise administrations will just keep hiring/firing and kicking kids off the team with no real repercussions to the university, other than a bad image and high turnover in the program.