If they even consider doing anything to us after the SC and Oklahoma crap then we should tell them to shove it up there vol.

Most professors do not have good relationships with bookstore managers (and this is mostly the fault of faculty not getting their orders in early enough). The bookstore managers have a difficult job to ensure that textbooks for all classes are available to students. The enrollment of UA has increased by 7000 students in the last five years and undoubtedly this has caused a great deal of confusion at the Supe Store. The second infraction will not be punished at all. Most schools would have to report the same thing if it was investigated. The UA compliance office has handled the situation in a great manner and I doubt we see anything from it.

“to acquire texts and materials of a value greater than $100 for girlfriends, boyfriends, or other student-athletes”

This should be translated to mean that this first group of student athletes “charged” books for classes that they weren’t enrolled in (for other students).

While they may not have realized (and this is UA’s contention) that this broke an NCAA bylaw, since they were required to return the books or pay for them at the end of the semester, they nevertheless knew that the books weren’t for their classes. They should have known (and most likely did know) that what they were doing was something that they could get into trouble for if they were caught.

I completely agree on the second part. I remember when I was in school there the “book rush” was one of my most hated parts of the semester. Not only did you get ripped off for books that you only received a fraction of the purchase price for when you sold them back, but you had to struggle through the madhouse of the SUPe store just to wait in line for an hour. And there were only around 18-19 thousand students, then.

While I can understand respondeat superior for the administration’s failure to monitor amateurism of its players or competitive standards (playing- and academic-wise), this one involves neither of the big infractions. Restitution (since they are all currently enrolled) seems to fit more of the ends of deterrence, rather than denying others the opportunity for a schollie for, what is, small potatoes.

That said, I’m counting on the NCAA to be rational; always a dangerous prospect.

still no sanctions for Reggie “Bought and Paid-for” Bush.

Color me shocked.

You have to give UA credit on this one for keeping it under wraps. The original letter came in May, with the meeting in late February, so they kept this thing completely and totally under wraps for nine months. It used to be that anything and everything leaked out of the UA administration, but no longer. Saban has got that place on complete lockdown.

I will say this about timing… this did come at the absolute best possible time for us. It’s basically right about NSD, and almost six months until the Virginia Tech game. Hopefully we’ll get a final ruling on this in the next few weeks and this matter will be fully taken care of.

and if the NCAA followed each one around for 3 or 4 years I would bet a Biology book that out of 120 at least 4 or 5 would get some kind of gain for playing football. Not that the coaches know about it, but 4 or5 kids would get something.

Think about it your a 20 year old kid at Outback and the manager loves Bama and he tells you the check is on him…you gonna tell him no? BAM…your school is now on probation.

It is just to the point of silly. Meanwhile USC/Bush goes free. Something needs to be done about the NCAA. And by the way Bama’s fate lies in the hands of people from places like Wyoming, Central Michigan, and the Mid-Eastern Conference. That really scares me.

well at least for a bit. Tell it to the university’s and bookstore’s that we are in the economic downturn and they will smile and say $1245.82 is your total for your books for this semester sir have a nice day. Oh, I’m sorry they come out with a new edition this semester you must buy the new book. blah blah blah

Just read this gem here…

Because Alabama was found in violation of NCAA rules inside the five-year window for its infractions found 2002, it could be — but does not have to be — considered a repeat offender.

So this probably means that Bama must kiss the NCAA’s ass for the next century so they won’t “consider” us as a repeat offender?

It notified Alabama that the school could be subject to penalties that include loss of scholarships and restrictions of recruiting trips and visits.

…from here.

I had no idea that these offenses were this serious. Is the NCAA just showing the size of their balls or do they seriously plan to act on this?

The thing that pisses me off the most about this is the fans of other schools now calling Bama players “cheaters”. How sad.

Here are some notes:

• This thing is shaping up to be serious. They kept talking about how this is the second biggest infraction behind “Lack of Institutional Control”.

• If we go on probation, how will this affect our recruits? Any of our players are allowed to transfer or get out of LOI without penalty. IF we get out of this with a couple years probation and a loss of a couple of schollies, we are lucky.

• Will this cause Saban to want to leave? I can’t imagine he is happy with this.

• THANK JESUS CHRIST Tom Yeager is not the chairman of the committee anymore.

• Scarbinsky is butt-hurt since he didn’t get informed by UA that they went before the committee. He whined about Alabama lying…

OTS, thoughts?

i leave the country thinking everything is in good hands and look what happens…

First and foremost, don’t get too worried about this in terms of it hurting the competitive edge of the program. Look at Oklahoma, they got some penalties which are probably slightly worse than we’ll get in 2007, but yet they were in the national championship game last year, and have a great shot at doing so again next year. It’s really bad publicity more than anything else. There’s nothing to indicate this will hurt the competitiveness of the program.

Second, Saban himself has actually gone through something like this before. In 2002 at LSU, the program was charged with several academic violations, namely having players plagiarizing papers, cheating on tests, and pressuring faculty to make grade changes for student-athletes. In fact, a couple of professors even sued the university of the pressure on the grade changes, and LSU ended up settling with them for over $100,000. Anyway… that all came to a head in 2004, and LSU ended up self-enforcing by cutting a couple of scholarships and recruiting visits (which is something near the level we will probably get). Obviously that didn’t hurt their competitive position, and again, the point is that Saban has dealt with this sort of thing before (plus he took over a Michigan State program that had just been hit hard by NCAA sanctions).

All in all, we just need to try to limit the damages on this one. Nothing indicates that we will receive anything harsh, but we’ll get a little just because of who we are dealing with here. It’s bad publicity, and frustrating as hell, to be sure, but there shouldn’t be any long-term effects.

The real key is that this means the probationary window will be extended, and if something else happens during that time…