NCAA Ruling

Tide Fans -

First of all I would like to say Roll Tide! It has been a while since I have written anything and it feels good to be writing an update!! Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard all about our NCAA ruling. Weeks of worrying and speculating what their decision would be have finally come to an end. First of all I must say that I am extremely happy they did not take away any scholarships. This does not mean that I am happy with what we received - I am a little concerned about the 3 years probation. The main reason is that 3 years is a long time, and there are so many NCAA rules now that it is nearly impossible to not have some kind of infraction (even if it is very minor), I mean, now an athlete sneezes and you have to report it. Now that we are on double secret probation we will be under the microscope even more. Many people are not happy with what they are referring to as "vacated" wins. I personally could care less about this - what a stupid type of punishment. Like we are all going just forget that we actually won the games they are making us vacate. They did the same thing to us back in 1993 and no one even remembers that - all it does is put an asterisk in the media guide. I for one can live with that! The probation is what we should all be concerned about.

The thing that irritates me most about the NCAA is that they don't treat the same exact violations equally between schools. If one school does something and another does the exact same thing - they should get the same punishment. Sounds fair right? Well, it doesn't work that way with the NCAA. Several other schools have had extremely similar "textbook" situations, and received no more than a warning from Indianapolis. I don't have any problem receiving a punishment for something we did - I just want them to hand out consistent punishments across the board. Where is the USC punishment for the Reggie Bush chronicles, and where was the punishment for Tennessee when Tee Martin admitted to receiving at least $10,000 from boosters????? The last thing we got slammed for (Albert Means) was never even proven, but we got crushed for it. If you are going to hand out rulings to us for things we did, then you better keep them consistent with what you have done with other programs, and so far that has not been the case. One last thing about the NCAA that really chaps my ass is even when we follow the procedures they put forth, they still crush us. We self discovered the textbook situation and self reported it. We suspended the players involved until the NCAA cleared them to return. We brought this entire situation to their attention and did everything we were supposed to do. My point here is why do we even bother doing this if it in turn it does not help you out with any rulings??? Had we not reported this, the NCAA would never have even known about it - we did the right thing and reported it, and what do we get…3 years probation and "vacated wins". So I say in the future forget about self reporting - what good has it done us in the past???

Probably the best thing about the ruling the other was listening to all the Aubs reactions - they were soo irritated they couldn't stand it! The majority of them wanted us the get the death penalty over a textbook scandal (if you can call it that). I mean come on!!!! Auburn needs to worry about their own damn team and stop worrying about ours - perhaps then you might build a competitive program. The only way you have been competitive lately is due to us being crushed by the NCAA. You enjoyed success for several years while we re-built our program - well guess what - we re-built, and whipped your ass! So, now all you can do is revel in the fact that we are in trouble with the NCAA and you continuously try to spread ridiculous rumors about illegal recruiting in various cities across the state. As I said earlier - you need to worry about building your own program and stop trying to bring ours down with convoluted rumors about this and that - you are wasting your time! Auburn fans that obsess over this stuff are pathetic.

Even though I am not happy with how the NCAA treats Alabama, I am glad that this is over and we can now focus on the upcoming season. I am already fired up as we are only 84 days until kickoff!! I cannot wait to see what our beloved Crimson Tide unveils this year. There are many unknowns with key positions to fill, but I feel confident Coach Saban has it under control. I feel confident about everything Coach Saban does - he knows what he is doing. There are some days I wish Coach Saban would just call me and tell me what I am supposed to do that day! Our defense should be punishing and I can't wait to watch us rotate fresh players in and out, blitzing like crazy!! Aaaaah good things to come - I love a powerful Defense!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and looking forward to the fall. I will check back in with my pre-season analysis in August - until then…Roll Tide!!