DeCourcy is Right: NCAA Needs to Let the Kids Play

Respected columnist Mike DeCourcy says the NCAA should stop punishing innocent kids for rules violations commited by adults before they arrived on campus. Although he's referring specifically to Oklahoma State, NC State could soon find itself in a similar situation

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News -- who is one of the best, if not the best national writers covering college sports these days -- has an interesting column taking the NCAA to task for the sanctions it handed down recently to the Oklahoma State basketball program.

The gist of the column is that it’s not fair to punish players such as incoming freshman Cade Cunningham, the nation’s top-rated recruit, for the transgressions of those no longer associated with the program.

The Cowboys were hit hard, including a one-year postseason ban, because of transgressions committed by former assistant coach Lamont Evans.

While its apples and oranges to compare the circumstances surrounding Oklahoma State’s situation to the still-pending case involving NC State and Dennis Smith Jr., DeCourcy’s argument remains relevant to both.

It’s an opinion best summed up by a quote in the column from ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, who asked the question: “Why punish innocent kids?”

That, unfortunately, is an NCAA specialty. So is inconsistency.

As former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian once joked, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation.”

In Oklahoma State’s case, none of the players that will be asked to pay the price for the since fired, indicted and convicted Evans were on the roster when the NCAA violations were committed.

The same is true closer to home at State.

Consider that this year’s incoming freshman class of Ebenezer Dowuona, Nick Farrar, Jaylon Gibson, Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore were still in middle school when former Wolfpack assistant Orlando Early allegedly served as the middle man in funneling $40,000 to five-star recruit Smith in 2016.

DeCourcy’s point isn’t about guilt or innocence when he implores the NCAA to reconsider Oklahoma State’s postseason ban. It’s about fairness.

And it will be just as unfair if the NCAA’s new Independent Accountability Resolution Process finds NC State guilty and decides to drop the hammer just as hard on the Wolfpack.

Put the hurt on the adults involved, as the NCAA did with its 10-year show cause on Evans. Fine the schools heavily and put them on double secret probation.

But leave the “student-athletes” alone and let the kids play.

That is, after all, what the NCAA is supposedly in business to do. Isn’t it?

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