It’s been discussed at length at this point that LSU will be without star defensive tackle [autotag]Maason Smith[/autotag] against Florida State, who will have to wait one more week to return from the field.
He was suspended for the opener after he reportedly received improper benefits at an autograph signing more than two years ago just before the advent of name, image and likeness rights.
The NCAA’s decision to suspend Smith, who would have served his suspension last fall had he not been injured, has been the subject of quite a bit of criticism.
Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt became the latest to do so during his show on Monday.
“This is such a stupid ruling from the NCAA,” Klatt said. “Let’s just go through it from this standpoint: The NCAA will technically call this an impermissible benefit. Now, if this were LSU straight paying for his electric bill? Maybe you could, maybe, convince me, like, ‘Hey, that’s an impermissible benefit’. Okay, maybe if someone paid him 10 grand directly for nothing. He didn’t tweet, appear, nothing. It was just like, ‘Hey man! Here’s the old school ‘remember the program”, you get the envelope, and it’s here’s ten grand in an envelope for nothing. Maybe, maybe. But, again, the world is changing. This was, literally, in the grand scheme of things, a whisper before the NIL legislation changed things in terms of name, image, and likeness, a whisper before that.”
Klatt said he was specifically frustrated to see the NCAA come down hard in a case like this, especially given the circumstances and changing landscape in college football.
“He goes and signs his name and gets paid for it! And the NCAA blows the whistle? Are you crazy, insane, or stupid? Probably all three,” Klatt said. “It is mind-blowing to me that they think that this is, like, ‘Ha! Yep. We got him!’. Are you serious? Are you serious? You’ve heard me say, and I will continue to say, we are in the middle of a long string of dominoes that are toppling over and those are instances in which everybody gets their eyes opened and their frustrations up with the inept bureaucracy which is the NCAA. This is another one of those dominoes.
“Maason Smith gets a one-game suspension, he’s their best player, in one of their most important games of the year. So, like, the NCAA is going to butt in on the actual competitive nature of the season because the guy signed his name, a whisper before the NIL legislation changed? Are you kidding me??? Are you kidding me? Spare me the ‘letter of the law’ crap! This is about understanding what’s going on in the larger sense. In the larger sense, the NCAA is a robotic bureaucracy! This is just one instance.”
Regardless of frustration surrounding his suspension, LSU will instead have to turn to players like [autotag]Jacobian Guillory[/autotag] and transfers [autotag]Jordan Jefferson[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Lee[/autotag] to step up without Smith available for a top-10 matchup.
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