NCAA Forces Marine to Redshirt for 2013 College Football Season

This is just plain wrong. The geniuses that run the NCAA have ruled a freshman defensive end for Middle Tennessee State, Steven Rhodes, ineligible for the coming season, but not for any of the usual reasons. There were no impermissible benefits,  questionable recruiting activity, or horrendous grades involved.

He just happened to play in an intramural league while serving our country for the last five years in the Marine Corp.

The rule that the NCAA is using against him is kind of vague leaving it open to interpretation a little too much. I understand why they do it that way; so that they have a little flexibility with it and are not held to a strict interpretation. However, this time they really screwed it up.

According to the rule in question (NCAA bylaw 14.2.3.2.1) the NCAA charges a player with a year of eligibility for every year they play in an organized, competitive competition after high school. Since the intramural league that Rhodes played in during his time in the Marines had uniforms, refs, and scorekeepers it was deemed 'organized competition.'

And so they took this coming season from him.

“This is extremely frustrating. I think it’s unfair, highly unfair,” Rhodes said. “I just got out of the Marine Corps, and I wanted to play. For (the NCAA) to say, ‘No, you can’t play right now,’ I just don’t understand the logic in that.”

Ask the NCAA and they will likely say that they are being more than fair in this situation. By the letter of the law Rhodes was supposed to be benched for a year and than have two years of eligibility stripped since the very loosely organized games that he played in spanned two academic years.

When MTSU appealed they bent and gave him back the two years of eligibility but told MTSU he would still have to sit this year.

What makes this whole situation even more frustrating is that a revision was included in 1986 to make sure that members of the military would not be penalized for playing in recreational leagues while serving our country. As the rule received one revision after another the wording that protected guys like Rhodes was left by the wayside.

“We’re just saying (to the NCAA), ‘Hey, you forgot this clause,’” said Daryl Simpson, MTSU’s assistant athletic director/compliance.

This is absolutely absurd. I understand that the NCAA thinks that it is following a law--all be it a poorly worded one--but this case is proof that the law needs to be revisited. By bending as much as they have already they have pretty much admitted the law is flawed.

So why not go ahead and correct rather than make a United States Marine suffer?

[Quotes and information from a great article at dnj.com]