Spirit of rule lost on NCAA

Chris Duprey
Dupe's Scoop

All "Free Jamal" and "Down with the NCAA" crusades aside, the NCAA is truly good at heart. This is an organization that has no choice but to be stringent, no option but to be picky if it is going to successfully police the world of college sports.

Most times, the NCAA does what it has to do to maintain the level playing field that gives the good schools a chance to compete fairly.

But in Jamal Crawford's case, the NCAA has employed a serious lack of common sense in suspending him an additional eight games.

This suspension is completely unrelated to Barry Henthorn, Chevys, jewelry or litigious ex-secretaries. Crawford was penalized eight more games for submitting a letter detailing his intent to enter the 1999 NBA Draft as a high school senior, despite the fact that the letter arrived one day after the NBA's deadline and wasn't accepted.

In the eyes of the NBA, Crawford never entered the draft that year. As far as the NBA is concerned, Crawford never applied for the draft. To put things in basketball perspective, his application was like a 3-point shot after the buzzer - it doesn't exist. It doesn't get marked on the stat sheet because it never happened.

NCAA rules state that high schoolers cannot apply for professional-league drafts, although college players are afforded that opportunity. Put aside this hypocrisy for the time being - it's beside the point. The NCAA, with its collective head in a dark tunnel, determined that Crawford violated that rule simply by sending his letter-of-intent to the NBA, whether it was on time or not.

Never mind that it got there late and was refused by the NBA. The stodgy NCAA, in its strict interpretation of an obscure rule, says Crawford did wrong.

So essentially, Crawford is stuck in a twisted stalemate. He couldn't have jumped to the NBA, even if he had wanted to - Crawford maintains that he was just looking for a talent assessment and had no desire to jump to the pros. Crawford also couldn't stay out of harm's way with the NCAA, despite his lack of wrongdoing.

Crawford couldn't win. He was doomed either way. And because the NCAA couldn't push through its self-created smoke screen, it lost sight of the spirit of its own rules.

Had Crawford's letter arrived on time, then rules are rules, Crawford should be disciplined as appropriate, even if it means that he loses the rest of his eligibility and Michigan is forced to pick up the pieces without him.

But that's not the case. Crawford and the Wolverines are being punished for a non-event.

This is a serious injustice by the NCAA - an eight-game suspension for a late entry letter that was never accepted. Maybe someday the NCAA will get its head out of the ground - too late to save Crawford, probably, but not too late to prevent further idiocy.

- Chris Duprey can be reached via e-mail at cduprey@umich.edu.