Didn’t Duke administators decide to end Duke’s lacrosse season themselves? That wasn’t a NCAA imposed sanction so why should the NCAA save Duke from itself? What about bring back players that just might take games - or even a title away from competitors of others schools - players who had nothing to do with the decision of the administrators at Duke. A correct decision? Don’t know. Duke essentially lost a year’s worth of recruiting due to speculations about the future of the program.
From the New York Times ->
Sure, it wasn’t an NCAA decision. But the clock was still ticking when Duke pulled the plug on the whole season - for what turned out to be spurious reasons.
Given that, it might make sense to restore a year of eligibility to those players affected, and give them an opportunity to play that was denied them.
I don’t think the NCAA is saving Duke from itself…they are saving the Duke LaCrosse players from Duke. Clearly, the administration at Duke made an unfair decision that affected the college careers of the students on the team. I don’t think this ruling by the NCAA can truly make that right, but this is a step in the right direction, IMO. If the players missed the season through no fault of their own, due to an unfair decision, it seems right to me that the NCAA relax their rule and allow them the extra year of eligibility to make up for it.
Well, Duke can’t extend eligibility. And the NCAA often steps in when athletes have gotten an unfair break (injury, coach who recruited them leaving). Not sure how many of these guys will come back – most of them are probably on track to graduate in four years.
The NCAA did the right thing. The kids’ clock was running under NCAA rules when the administration pulled the plug on the team, it’s only fair that the NCAA retroactively “paused” the clock.
Lacrosse isn’t a revenue sport or a pro feeder, so I don’t see many kids taking advantage, but it’s nice to see that for every boneheaded Jeremy Bloom-type decision it makes, the NCAA can do what’s right for the kids.
Because a lot of NCAA enforcement is based on the self-enforcement of the member schools and conferences themselves. Thus schools and conferences are quick to impose sanctions on themselves to avoid NCAA investigations and the increased penalties based on “lack of institutional control”.