Posted: D.A.So, the Orange gets nailed on scholarships because of a low APR? Fail.
This is not nearly the grenade that USC has been sitting on (whether the NCAA truly drops the hammer is anyone’s guess). It’s not the egregious mistakes and flauting of the rules that UConn was exposed for last month. But can losing a couple of basketball scholarships hurt? Sure.
“The newest Academic Progress Rates¬†showed only two power conference schools¬†(of 137) will¬†face penalties in football, men’s basketball or women’s basketball. Syracuse and Colorado hoops, and CU football. Both schools said they have already taken the scholarship losses and won’t be affected next season.”
It says something, and not in a good way, that of 173 power conference schools, only two were fingered by the NCAA in a revenue sport. And heck, they even threw women’s hoops under that umbrella – which loses money at the vast majority of schools. In other words, it’s hard to get punished. You have to really mess up.
“Colorado was penalized one scholarship in men’s basketball and four in football, while Syracuse lost two in men’s basketball for falling below the NCAA’s 925 cutline. Officials at both schools said they took away the scholarships last season after academically ineligible players left school.”
So, we’ll have to see if this impacts the Orange hoops team in any way. It may be a simple blip on the radar. It likely means nothing notable to the basketball program. This doesn’t take Syracuse from a 25-win team to a 15-win outfit. It doesn’t prevent Mike Hopkins from landing McDonald’s All-Americans.
But it does say something about administrative oversight. Syracuse hoops needs to be better about this. If Kentucky can slide and Memphis can get by and West Virginia is clean¬†- then the ‘Cuse should be expected to be as well.
