Infraction Fines Far Too Low to Work

Last week, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions brought the "hammer" down on Alabama. They vacated wins, turned a lampshade askew in the football offices, fined the University for the improprieties related to the textbook scandal, and turned the windshield wipers on Nick Saban's Mercedes so they pointed towards the sky. Up instead of down! Oh, snap. The NCAA got straight crazy up in the joint. Oh, and the fine the multi-billion dollar NCAA levied? Try $43,900. That's less than it costs a parent to send his or her kid to Vanderbilt.

I'm sure Alabama is trembling deep beneath the brim of their houndstooth hats. Especially given that Alabama had a total athletic department revenue of $88.9 million in 2007-2008. What's the NCAA penalty for major infractions represent within the context of Alabama's overall budget? Try .0004938 of the overall total.

Let's put that in a context to which we can all relate. The median family in America makes around $47,000 a year. What would that same percentage mean to them if they were fined? A $23.20 penalty. Or about one-tenth what a speeding ticket will end up costing you these days. Yep, the NCAA isn't even as strict as a traffic cop.

A few months ago, I moderated a panel of NCAA and college officials at Vanderbilt Law School. There was an NCAA attorney, a past member of the NCAA infractions committee, the acting head of an SEC athletic department, and an attorney who appears before the infractions committee on a regular basis. Near the end of the panel session, I asked a question that I think is representative of the feelings of an average college fan:

"Many fans believe that the NCAA acts as a glorified traffic cop in this day and age, randomly pulling over a program every now and then for speeding when everyone else is flying by at the same time."

Now I feel like I was too kind, the NCAA isn't even as onerous as your average traffic cop. So apologies to traffic cops across America, even though I hate you and believe you're worthless, you're more effective than the NCAA.

What this opening should illustrate is what you already know in your fan soul. No one is afraid of being caught cheating by the NCAA. While I do think vacated wins sting, the monetary penalties are barely a ripple on the sheen of a new coat of paint on the athletic department's bathroom walls. They flat-out don't have any impact, and they're so low they send the worst possible message: We don't care. In fact, the financial penalties are so worthless, it would almost be better if they didn't levy any financial penalty at all. As a lawyer, there's a real argument to be made that lawyers representing schools during these NCAA investigations are paid more relative to the potential loss threatened by losing than any civil proceeding on earth. I'd wager that Alabama will pay at least $500,000 in legal bills related to this investigation.

Run for the hills, Maude, the lawyers are more dangerous to our balance sheet than the governing body that regulates us.

But this isn't an Alabama issue, they're just the most recent example of a toothless enforcement system. Put it this way, if you could cheat at an extremely competitive job you that offered much in the way of rewards, and if you got caught you'd only pay around $20 as a penalty and keep going just as you were before, wouldn't you do it? Of course you would. And that's exactly what NCAA institutions do as well, the penalties are so weak there's nothing to fear, the system is actually set up to encourage cheating. That's why it's high time the NCAA does something about this, they need to set a new penalty structure, make the fines worth millions of dollars.

Somewhere in Alabama's athletics department, I guarantee you they joked about the $43,900 fine. The school pays Nick Saban almost twice that every week. But would they have laughed if two zeroes were added to the fine? Say if the Crimson Tide had to cut a check for $4,390,000 instead? I don't think so. Would schools be more likely to play along by the rules if the NCAA fines actually impacted the way they do business?

Definitely.



In the process the NCAA could actually garner some good publicity for a change. How? The money garnered from these increased fines should be redirected into the coffers of the public university system in the state. For scholarships to deserving students, those that aren't already getting a free ride for sports. And here's the real kicker, the scholarships should go to students at every school but the cheating institution. You want to make Alabama fans red in the face, tell them their athletic department is funding scholarships for kids at Auburn, or UAB or Troy or any other school in the state.

You don't think this would work equally well across the country as a huge deterrent? Imagine Michigan's cheating funding Michigan State scholarships or vice versa, Oklahoma for Oklahoma State, Florida for Florida State, Tennessee paying for Memphis kids to go to school. You would never have seen such indignation, such gnashing of the teeth over the impact of cheating.

As soon as the first couple of multi-million dollar penalties were levied, cheating would drop faster than ever. Right now the NCAA fines send a definite message to colleges across the country, cheating does pay. Wouldn't it be refreshing if that changed?