The NCAA has one of the more difficult jobs in sports when it comes to handing out punishments to college football programs that have either violated the NCAA rules or violated the rules of society.
The NCAA is asked to be judge and jury in situations that most people would never want to get involved in.
It is all part of the job and, regardless of what some observers may think, the NCAA actually does a pretty good job in keeping college football programs on the up and up.
When the NCAA hands out penalties to programs, it usually has three options.
Those options are bowl suspensions which bans the program from playing in bowl games, financial fines, and the removal of player scholarships.
Financial fines are pretty straightforward and are not used very often by the NCAA.
Most people remember the $60 million fine that was levied against Penn State, but those kinds of fines are rare.
When the NCAA takes away scholarships as penalties for past transgressions by college football programs, then that hurts future players.
If a program is used to having 30 scholarships each year but that is reduced to 15, then there will be 15 players that may not have the opportunity to go to college or may have to find a way to pay for their education as opposed to getting an education on a football scholarship.
These students had nothing to do with the crimes that were committed, but they are made to suffer.
The banning of a college football team from bowl games is something that affects the entire school.
A team that is having an especially good season looks forward to finishing that season off with a bowl game.
The students and alumni get a chance to cheer the team on in a bowl game and the entire school is rallied to the support of the team.
When that is removed, the student body, the alumni and the players all suffer.
In most cases, the students and players had nothing to do with the reason that the program was suspended from bowl games.
Before everyone vilifies the NCAA, it is important to remember that most college football players are only in a program for three to four years.
By the time an NCAA investigation is over, the guilty parties have graduated or moved on to the NFL, and the NCAA is left to punish the program.
The only way to prevent a college football program from allowing rules violations to happen in the future is to punish the team when it does break the rules.
It is not always fair to the people that actually have to pay the price, but it is often the only recourse that the NCAA has to try and keep college football programs on the level.
It also helps the NCAA to protect future students from suffering through the same mistakes that past students had made.
The NCAA is asked to be judge and jury in situations that most people would never want to get involved in.
It is all part of the job and, regardless of what some observers may think, the NCAA actually does a pretty good job in keeping college football programs on the up and up.
When the NCAA hands out penalties to programs, it usually has three options.
Those options are bowl suspensions which bans the program from playing in bowl games, financial fines, and the removal of player scholarships.
Financial fines are pretty straightforward and are not used very often by the NCAA.
Most people remember the $60 million fine that was levied against Penn State, but those kinds of fines are rare.
When the NCAA takes away scholarships as penalties for past transgressions by college football programs, then that hurts future players.
If a program is used to having 30 scholarships each year but that is reduced to 15, then there will be 15 players that may not have the opportunity to go to college or may have to find a way to pay for their education as opposed to getting an education on a football scholarship.
These students had nothing to do with the crimes that were committed, but they are made to suffer.
The banning of a college football team from bowl games is something that affects the entire school.
A team that is having an especially good season looks forward to finishing that season off with a bowl game.
The students and alumni get a chance to cheer the team on in a bowl game and the entire school is rallied to the support of the team.
When that is removed, the student body, the alumni and the players all suffer.
In most cases, the students and players had nothing to do with the reason that the program was suspended from bowl games.
Before everyone vilifies the NCAA, it is important to remember that most college football players are only in a program for three to four years.
By the time an NCAA investigation is over, the guilty parties have graduated or moved on to the NFL, and the NCAA is left to punish the program.
The only way to prevent a college football program from allowing rules violations to happen in the future is to punish the team when it does break the rules.
It is not always fair to the people that actually have to pay the price, but it is often the only recourse that the NCAA has to try and keep college football programs on the level.
It also helps the NCAA to protect future students from suffering through the same mistakes that past students had made.
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