Crimson Red Sports

I thought that new contract was a slap in the face to the NCAA, I guess Brooks agrees.




http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/auburn-openly-mocks-ncaa-president-in-writing-29754

I'm not surprised at anything that Auburn does, just waiting for the NCAA to do something with them.

When a school has 50 different investigations into improprieties I automatically lower my "burden of proof" bar. It may be that all 50 (exageration) individual investigations each come up short of proving guilt beyond all doubt, when viewed in a criminal courtroom context. So then it comes down to the NCAA's willingness or lack of, to use common sense in deciding the barn's fate.  Whether they have the courage to say "enough is enough and where there is smoke there is fire".

NCAA proceedings are far more informal. The level of proof in criminal proceedings is absolute--beyond all reasonable doubt.  But the NCAA is not constrained by criminal code. Nor is the NCAA equiped to hold an FBI level investigation.  Witnesses are not concerned with penalties for false testimony or perjury. Also, in the cases of athletes who have graduated or are no longer playing, the NCAA has no means to punish (except maybe retroactively). So if the evidence is quantitatively significant, can this override any shortcomings qualitatively?

Short of some new evidence, a surprise prosecution witness such as Cecil Newton or an FBI wiretap from Colonial/Victoryland, there may not be an airtight case made in any of the investigations.  But if the NCAA is willing to stand back and take a cumulative look at all the smoke caused by 50 different little fires, they could arrive at a reasonable conclusion that the smoke is coming from unfair competitive advantages, many failures to monitor, lack of institutional control, and a general attitude of "screw the rules-win at any cost" on the plains.   

Well said.  #+