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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/opinion/nocera-living-in-fear-of-the-ncaa.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&pagewanted=print#">Reprints</a><br clear="all"></li></div></div><br><hr size="1" align="left">
<div class="timestamp">January 23, 2012</div>
<h1>Living in Fear of the N.C.A.A.</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By <a rel="author" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/columns/josephnocera/?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Joe Nocera" class="meta-per">JOE NOCERA</a></h6></span>
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<p>
It was early in the evening of Jan. 13 when <a href="http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/boatright_ryan00.html">Ryan Boatright</a>, the freshman basketball player at the University of Connecticut, learned that he was being suspended from the team <a href="http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/Boatright-heartbroken-by-news-of-his-NCAA-review-2529613.php">for the second time</a>
this season. Earlier that day, he had flown into South Bend, Ind., with
his teammates for a game against Notre Dame. The 19-year-old point
guard was excited because some 400 people from his hometown, Aurora,
Ill., were coming to see him play. </p>
<p>
When his coach, Jim Calhoun, broke the news that the N.C.A.A. was still
investigating him, Boatright collapsed in Calhoun’s arms. In tears, he
called his mother, Tanesha, who began weeping uncontrollably. <a title="My Saturday column" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/opinion/nocera-guilty-until-proved-innocent.html">As I chronicled on Saturday</a>,
it was her acceptance of plane tickets a year or so ago that had caused
his first suspension. The N.C.A.A. had ruled the tickets an “improper
benefit,” and had ordered him to sit out six games and pay a
$100-per-month fine to repay the tickets. What more, she wondered, could
the N.C.A.A. want? </p>
<p>
A lot, it turned out. Tanesha is a single mother raising four children
on a small salary. The N.C.A.A. investigators viewed her circumstances
as a cause for suspicion, not sympathy. For instance, she owns a car.
Where did she get the money to pay for it, they asked? How did she pay
for her home? And so on. </p>
<p>
Concluding that she had no choice but to cooperate — otherwise, her son
would surely pay a severe price — Tanesha turned over her bank
statements, as the N.C.A.A. demanded. Four N.C.A.A. investigators pored
through her financial records and conducted interrogations in Aurora,
seeking “evidence” that she was getting money from “improper” sources.
(Tanesha declined to comment.) </p>
<p>
When the investigators saw a series of cash deposits in her bank
account, they demanded to know the source of the money. She told them:
Friends had given her money so that she and her children could have a
joyful Christmas. The investigators said they didn’t believe her; they
felt sure that she must have gotten the money from an unscrupulous
sports agent or some other party outlawed by the N.C.A.A. </p>
<p>
Meanwhile, her son remains in limbo, unable to play the game he loves,
his reputation unfairly besmirched, while he awaits the N.C.A.A.’s
latest ruling. I keep hearing it might happen soon, but, so far,
nothing. People associated with Connecticut basketball, including
Calhoun, are said to be furious at the N.C.A.A.’s treatment of Ryan
Boatright. But the university is as fearful of the N.C.A.A. as Tanesha.
It has yet to say a single word publicly on his behalf. </p>
<p>
When I asked the N.C.A.A. about the Boatright case, the response I
received was deeply disingenuous. Refusing to discuss the actions of its
investigators, it essentially said that Connecticut, not the N.C.A.A.,
declared Boatright ineligible. That is technically true. Schools declare
athletes ineligible because if they don’t, the N.C.A.A. will deprive
them of scholarships, force them to forfeit games and prevent them from
playing in postseason games. Most astonishing, an N.C.A.A. spokeswoman
told me that the organization does not have the legal authority to
compel cooperation from parents. Again, technically true: Its real
weapon — the threat of destroying their sons’ careers — is far more
potent than any mere subpoena. </p>
<p>
Over the past three weeks, as <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=joe+nocera+N.C.A.A.&d=&o=&v=&c=&n=10&dp=0&daterange=past90days&bylquery=Joe%20Nocera&sort=newest">I’ve written a series of columns</a> about the abuses of the N.C.A.A., one question keeps reverberating in my head: How can this be happening in America? </p>
<p>
How can children be punished for the deeds of their parents — deeds that
aren’t even wrong in any basic legal sense? How can the N.C.A.A.
blithely wreck careers without regard to due process or common fairness?
How can it act so ruthlessly to enforce rules that are so petty? Why
won’t anybody stand up to these outrageous violations of American values
and American justice? </p>
<p>
The columns have also prompted e-mails, mostly from parents of college
athletes, with their own examples of N.C.A.A. injustices. The women’s
basketball player at Harvard who came to the United States from Britain
and isn’t allowed to play because she struggled when she first got to
the U.S. and had to repeat a year of high school. The team manager —
yes, team manager! — who was forced out of his role because he knew a
high school player that his school was recruiting. The A students forced
off the court because the N.C.A.A. does not include their high school
A.P. courses among its “approved” coursework. The coach whose career was
ended when the N.C.A.A. accused him of “unethical conduct” without
giving him a chance to defend himself. </p>
<p>
“The N.C.A.A. is like the Gestapo,” wrote one parent in an e-mail. “It’s
out there, we all fear it, and it is all-powerful and follows its own
rules and makes them up as they go along. Who are they protecting? The
same thing the Gestapo protected: themselves.” </p>
<div class="authorIdentification">
<p>Ben Strauss contributed reporting from Aurora, Ill.
</p> </div>
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