In the NCAA's latest debacle, the University of Kentucky received a letter from Mr. Dennis Thomas, chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, stating that the university had, in error, celebrated coach John Calipari's 500th win after a victory over the University of Florida on February 26th. This "celebration" as he calls it was, in reality, nothing more than a handshake and a game ball handed to the coach. As the media asked its questions during the post game press conference, Kentucky reps made it clear that the 500 wins of Calipari's included vacated wins that had occurred during his tenure at UMass (4 wins in the 1996 season) and every win at Memphis during the 2008 season, including a championship appearance.
Upon receiving Thomas's letter, Sandy Bell (Kentucky's compliance officer) wrote a reply stating that the university had been in touch with NCAA officials asking how it was to portray the "celebration"so as not to be in any violation. However, the NCAA did not reply in time, so UK went ahead with the post game recognition of Calipari's 500th win, along with informing the media that the 500 total included past vacated wins. Ms. Bell even went so far as to include links and photo copies of articles written after the Florida game that clearly state the vacated wins in the total, as reflected by UK reps.
But Mr. Thomas would have none of it, and ordered Kentucky to write an official apology for mis-representing Calipari's official win count, and that the NCAA must approve what was written before it was released. Kentucky complied, as its hands were tied.
That's when the Kentucky faithful took over. Fans of the university and of Coach Calipari took to the internet to begin their quest to out the NCAA's inconsistencies and incompetency. They, along with their coach, felt the program and namely the coach was being singled out by the NCAA. By searching the internet through the night, UK fans were able to compile a forever-growing list of schools that were forced by the NCAA to vacate wins that did not make notes of such vacations in their media guides, press info, etc.
The most telling of their findings are two schools from the MEAC, or Mid Eastern Athletic Conference, Florida A&M University and Savannah State University. Each of these schools lists wins in their media guides for seasons in which the NCAA ruled they were playing ineligible players, and thus must vacate those wins.
FAMU media guide:http://www.famu.edu/athletics/PDF/2010_MediaGuide.pdf
SSU Media Guide:http://www.ssuathletics.com/documents/2009/9/22/ssufb4.pdf?id=34
To the casual reader, that probably means nothing. To UK fans, it means everything. See, the MEAC is commissioned by none other than Mr. Dennis E. Thomas. Yep, that's right, the very man that sent the letter to UK telling them their media guides and such were wrong because they did not allot for vacated wins is sitting as commissioner over two schools doing the same. One would imagine that a man in such authority as Mr. Thomas would be thorough enough to investigate his schools fully to ensure that he is running a "clean" conference, before trying to take other's trash out.
Mr. Thomas wrote in his final letter to UK that the thought of the NCAA singling out Calipari is "preposterous." There were sports analysts at every level of media declaring UK fans were "paranoid" in thinking that the NCAA was out to get UK and its coach. Those same analysts are now singing a different tune. The media sees it. UK sees it. The fans see it. Calipari and Bell see it. Why is it that the NCAA, and namely, Dennis Thomas can't see it?
Along with those two MEAC schools, fans have listed several other schools such as Arizona, Florida State, DePaul, Oregon State, UCLA, and Villanova, just to name a few. This fanbase has done their homework and then some. Thomas stated in one of his letters that the NCAA does not have the manpower to be able to monitor every school's records, but insisted that if an error was brought to their attention they would investigate. He even went so far as to encourage Sandy Bell that if she knew of any erroneously published records to let him know.
So, instead of leaving it up to busy Mrs. Bell, the fanbase on the heavily populated catsillustrated.com compiled the list for her and has taken it upon itself to forward these lists, links, screenshots, etc to members of the media both local and national. Most expect there to be lots of coverage of these NCAA inconsistencies in the near future, and thanks to Jay Bilas and Oscar Combs' Twitter accounts, the ball is already rolling.
Since its beginning, the NCAA has had to make many rulings on eligibility of players, win/loss records, payment to players, and other major violations. It has been met with backlash that would make Chuck Norris shake in his boots. But it hasn't even begun to fathom what it's now up against. The "Big Blue Mist" is slowly swirling its way up from the Bluegrass State to Indianapolis. President Mark Emmert and COI chairman Thomas beware, the Big Blue Nation is rising and is demanding the NCAA to be consistent in its rulings, and to right the wrongs that have been laid out so conveniently in front of them. I hope they have flashlights up in Indy. The fog is getting pretty heavy out there.
Mr. Thomas wrote in his final letter to UK that the thought of the NCAA singling out Calipari is "preposterous." There were sports analysts at every level of media declaring UK fans were "paranoid" in thinking that the NCAA was out to get UK and its coach. Those same analysts are now singing a different tune. The media sees it. UK sees it. The fans see it. Calipari and Bell see it. Why is it that the NCAA, and namely, Dennis Thomas can't see it?
Along with those two MEAC schools, fans have listed several other schools such as Arizona, Florida State, DePaul, Oregon State, UCLA, and Villanova, just to name a few. This fanbase has done their homework and then some. Thomas stated in one of his letters that the NCAA does not have the manpower to be able to monitor every school's records, but insisted that if an error was brought to their attention they would investigate. He even went so far as to encourage Sandy Bell that if she knew of any erroneously published records to let him know.
So, instead of leaving it up to busy Mrs. Bell, the fanbase on the heavily populated catsillustrated.com compiled the list for her and has taken it upon itself to forward these lists, links, screenshots, etc to members of the media both local and national. Most expect there to be lots of coverage of these NCAA inconsistencies in the near future, and thanks to Jay Bilas and Oscar Combs' Twitter accounts, the ball is already rolling.
Since its beginning, the NCAA has had to make many rulings on eligibility of players, win/loss records, payment to players, and other major violations. It has been met with backlash that would make Chuck Norris shake in his boots. But it hasn't even begun to fathom what it's now up against. The "Big Blue Mist" is slowly swirling its way up from the Bluegrass State to Indianapolis. President Mark Emmert and COI chairman Thomas beware, the Big Blue Nation is rising and is demanding the NCAA to be consistent in its rulings, and to right the wrongs that have been laid out so conveniently in front of them. I hope they have flashlights up in Indy. The fog is getting pretty heavy out there.
