Why NCAA tournament bans are problematic

With Louisville’s self-imposed ban, yet another ranked team will not be in the NCAA tournament this year. Joining Louisville, among others, will be the SMU Mustangs who were college basketball’s last undefeated team this year. It seems as if the NCAA is handing out sanctions left and right. This suggests it is more likely than not that there is widespread cheating throughout the system and the NCAA just catches a few each year who don’t cover their tracks well enough.

Put aside bans for a minute and the list of infractions extends even further to include schools such as Syracuse who got hit hard earlier this season as a result of a multi-year investigation into Syracuse’s athletic program. This punishment included the suspension of Coach Jim Boeheim for nine games this season, 108 wins vacated from his career totals, and 12 scholarships stripped from their program — a punishment so devastating it might as well be a multi-year ban.

As a student at UConn, news of bans to teams who are above us in the rankings — particularly SMU because they’re in the same conference — immediately gets people excited. After all, that’s one less team we have to go through to get in and feasibly win the NCAA tournament this season. However, as a fan of college basketball, no one wants to see this. It’s hard for this kind of news not to bring to mind the ban that UConn had just a few years ago in 2013, which they historically bounced back from to win the championship the next year. Naturally, that made everyone wonder what could have happened to UConn if they had been allowed to compete in 2013. Back to back championships? The start of a dynasty? Speculation is endless, but at the end of the day, a violation left the tournament without one of its contenders.

Clearly bans, suspensions, stripped scholarships and vacated wins aren’t doing the trick. Every year more news of illegal recruiting, inadequate grades, and other miscellaneous violations taint the reputation of the league and inevitably water down the NCAA tournament with more teams that probably should be headlining the names in the NIT instead. As much as you want to see your team win the championship, you want to win it the right way by beating the best teams in the nation, not just the teams who haven’t cheated (or at least haven’t been caught cheating). It is a flawed system, but one with no obvious solution. However, it’s becoming clear that bowl bans aren’t getting the job done.

Consider Trey Lewis for a minute. Trey Lewis played for Penn State his freshman year before transferring to Cleveland State. After two years there he decided he wanted a chance to play in the tournament for his final year of eligibility in college basketball and he transferred to Louisville, a perennial contender who would give him the opportunity he always sought after — to win. Then, halfway through what must be the most exciting season of his life, Trey Lewis has to deal with the knowledge that because of Louisville’s past actions with other players, he will never recognize his dream of playing in the NCAA tournament. This is unfair and unreasonable and the wrong players are paying for the mistakes of others. This is an issue in college sports that transcends just basketball. For example, mistakes by the coaching staff for years at Penn State lead to the NCAA instituting a ban on them and taking away scholarships from honest players who worked hard to get where they are.

These punishments handed out by the NCAA are being placed upon the wrong people. Even though some of the players are guilty of participating in recruiting violations, the schools they play for should be blamed for providing young students with the ability to break these rules. At the end of the day, a tournament ban is not the correct punishment. The mantra today is to have a big school with big sports that makes big money, and the only way to ensure these schools adhere to the rules of the game is to fine them drastically. The quality of the tournament and innocent players should not be penalized for the underhanded tactics used by some of these schools. It’s time to start making schools truly pay for these infractions. After a few examples have been set they’ll know to toe the line and we can finally get back to a wild March with teams that deserve to be there, not teams that haven’t been caught.