SMU wins AAC title

As an alum of SMU and a staunch follower of the athletics program, particularly men’s football (well, starting again this year) and men’s basketball, I am inherently biased. No matter the decision that the NCAA levied after its 18 month investigation, post announcement I knew that I would immediately rationalize why the punishment was too harsh and plead the case for a lesser penalty.

With that said, I acknowledge that the penalties against Coach Brown and the SMU program are generally fair. Suspending Coach Brown for 30% of this coming season’s games was admitted by SMU’s President Turner to be consistent with the NCAA’s new initiative to hold coaches accountable for program infractions. And, the loss of three scholarships per season over three years also seems consistent with the punishment handed out to Syracuse for its men’s basketball program’s recent transgressions.

However, this is a school whose football program was once handed the “death penalty” – a punishment whose after-effect has been so damaging that the football team, as I write in late 2015, has still not recovered nearly 20 years later. This punishment proved to be so damaging that it has been levied by the NCAA against a college sports program ONCE – only to SMU’s football program in the late 1980s. I do not believe that the uncovered men’s basketball and golf infractions should be glossed over or pardoned, but SMU’s challenging athletics history does make it even more difficult for me to stomach the fact that this decision unfairly punishes SMU’s student body and student athletes.

While Larry Brown’s tenure will be marred by these sanctions, his arrival to SMU has had a remarkably uplifting impact on the student body and student life. Moody Coliseum, where the team plays, was fully renovated by early 2014 during Brown’s second season at SMU. Since then, Moody has been the host to numerous sellouts and has seen a spirited student section, reminiscent of Duke’s Cameron Crazies, dubbed Moody Madness. The likes of Tony Romo, Deion Sanders and Jason Garrett have attended home games, and the team’s success under Coach Brown has amplified the student body’s passion for its school and future alma mater.

This all leads to, in my view, why the inequities in this decision must be corrected and the NCAA must revise its postseason ban policy immediately. The timing of the punishment, after school has started, and the immediacy of its execution, are terribly unfair to basketball players who have helped rebuild SMU’s program. The students who have devotedly supported the team during its remarkable turnaround, who are an extension of this team, are also being unfairly punished. Participating in an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is a once in a lifetime opportunity for student athletes.

But, here’s one of the most important things, if not the most important, that I have not yet read in mainstream media. Do you remember what happened last year to the SMU men’s basketball team in the NCAA tournament? SMU, up by 2 points late in its first round game against UCLA, was called for an incredibly controversial goaltending on a 3-pt attempt which had no chance of going in. Many experts, including myself, argued that the call was incorrect. The next and last play of the game, where SMU was seemingly in shock, Nic Moore failed to score on two attempts and SMU’s dreams of advancing ended abruptly. Yanick Moreira, the culprit of the goaltending call, was crushed. Here’s his tweet where he took responsibility, although his “mistake” was remarkably human and arguably not really a mistake at all.

It was heartbreaking to see devoted SMU players, such as Nic Moore and Markus Kennedy, who both transferred and sat out a year in order to play for Coach Brown, lose in such a devastating fashion. Both Moore and Kennedy returned to SMU for this upcoming season, with a mission to have an even more successful campaign and to avenge the team’s premature departure from last year's NCAA tournament. And now, through no fault of their own and without the opportunity to transfer to another school where they could have the potential to play in another postseason, Moore and Kennedy are expected to be on the outside looking in. That’s completely unfair – and this combination of factors reminds me of the football team’s death penalty.

I truly hope that SMU appeals the NCAA’s decision, and that the NCAA modifies its postseason ban to not only have more humanity and fairness, but to also squarely put the interests of the students and student athletes first – after all, that is the way it should be and I believe the way that the NCAA intends for it to be.