Georgia Football: Minor Rules Infraction Another Case For Dismantling NCAA
The Georgia football program self-reported what is being classified as a “minor” rules infraction, and when you hear what it is you’ll want to see the NCAA taken down even more than you probably already do.
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Let’s just get right to the meat of it. NCAA bylaw 13.10.2.7:
"It is permissible for an institution to photograph a prospective student-athlete during a campus visit to be used in the institution’s permissible publicity and promotional activities (e.g., press release, media guide), but the photograph may not be provided to the prospective student-athlete."
What does all the NC-Double-talk mean? Essentially if a school wants to invite a prospective student-athlete for an event (such as junior day) they can take photographs and use them for approved promotional reasons, however, they can’t actually provide that photograph to the student.
“Hey there prospective student, we’d love to entertain you for a big event where you and lots of other top athletes will be our guest to see the facilities, meet the coaches and talk about your future…oh, but we can’t give you something that commemorates the day for you.”
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, Georgia football recruits “were provided pictures which were taken during a campus visit via social media,” on Feb. 21, per a summary of the violation described in information obtained by an open records request by the paper.
Just one more slice of indigestible bureaucratic pie that has nothing to do with the price of cola in the Golden Pantry. Once more the NCAA is proving that their mind-numbing brand of overreaching oversight is doing the student-athletes they purport to protect zero – but zero – good at all.
While this self-reported violation by the Georgia football program is only considered a Level III infraction (isolated and providing no more than a minimal recruiting advantage), one has to wonder why it would even be considered a violation at all, and why photographs provided to recruits have any bearing on the recruiting process or in protecting the integrity of recruiting at all.
Apr 6, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; NCAA president Mark Emmert speaks at a press conference before the national championship game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Connecticut Huskies at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Photographs, so easily taken and used on social media, the web, and everywhere you toss even a secondary glace in today’s world. Every phone, tablet and portable device you can imagine is equipped with a camera and every person holding such a device is now able to provide an instant marker. If the recruits wanted a photograph of an event they attend, they’d be able to obtain one from practically anywhere, so how is it even remotely a violation for a school to provide — directly or otherwise — those photos themselves?
In short, its not…or at least it shouldn’t be.
This is just the tip of the iceberg…a bit of quail egg pate resting atop of a feast of unnecessary regulations and by-laws the NCAA uses in their draconian rule. A rule book of Biblical proportions, with 434 pages of indecipherable regulations that have little to do with anything other than making sure the 300-member NCAA staffers have enough work to justify the continuation of a organization that should have been dismantled years ago.
The NCAA’s purpose was originally to support and protect the student-athlete, not to have a circle-jerk of witch hunts year after year, wasting time and money trying to uncover supposed advantages gained by programs and their athletes…advantages, I might add, which practically every major program finds a way to enjoy.
If this organization were doing its job, there would be no need for institutions to feel compelled to report that digital photographs had been mistakenly provided to recruits. If the NCAA were living up to the standards that were originally intended, the Power-5 conferences would not have felt the need to seek autonomy simply to be able to provide their student-athletes with the same ability to live, work and eat that other students enjoy.
The truth of the matter is, the organization known as the NCAA has become a beast too massive to control, and has lost all purpose. The time for change has long passed, and its even more obvious when conferences known for self-absorbancy and flag-waving can do a better job of managing and protecting athletes than the consortium which was created for that job.
Georgia will get the proverbial slap on the wrist…some sensitivity training for recruiting staffers…and nothing more will come of it.
But why…why was it even necessary at all?
It wasn’t…nor is the NCAA in its current state.