Last week, the NCAA closed the book on a multi-year investigation into LSU athletics.
The results of the investigation were announced in the report from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process, and the Tigers ultimately received three years of probation for both the football and men’s basketball programs.
However, when it comes to penalties, the NCAA stuck with what the LSU athletics department ultimately self-imposed. Among the self-imposed penalties that hadn’t been previously disclosed, LSU football vacated all 37 wins from 2012-15 as offensive lineman [autotag]Vadal Alexander[/autotag] was deemed ineligible for that entire period.
Still, not everyone thought these penalties were sufficient. In an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Finebaum said the message the NCAA ruling sends is clear: Go ahead and cheat, because the consequences will be minimal.
“I don’t like saying this because I was one who always believed in the rules and who spent the early part of my career looking into transgressions and thinking those who did it should be kicked out of the industry. It just simply doesn’t matter anymore. …The message is clear. Cheat like crazy and don’t stop until you win. I never thought I would say that, but it’s the truth. It simply doesn’t matter anymore. …I am long past getting outraged and upset that someone like [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag] gets away with whatever he got away with, or someone else.
“Because if it doesn’t matter to the people who govern the sport, and by the way, that includes everyone who sits in on these meetings and on these management councils, then it’s certainly not going to bother me anymore.”
While it’s hard to argue too much with Finebaum’s point generally — the NCAA has always been fairly ill-equipped to punish wrongdoing, with the cloud of lengthy investigations over a program often being the biggest punishment — it’s worth pointing out that Wade did face harsher consequences than LSU at-large.
Now the head coach at McNeese, Wade will be suspended for the first 10 games of the 2023-24 season. He will also be saddled with recruiting limitations that will make life at a mid-major even tougher.
Still, after a long investigation yielded little in the way of actual punishment, it’s easy to see why the NCAA is viewed as so ineffectual in policing violations of its own rules.
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