NCAA rulings hardly consistent

Help me with this. It took the NCAA a staggering four years, with nearly unlimited investigative authority, to arrive at the inevitable conclusion that Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and his mom, Denise Griffin, did not have the means to afford the luxurious $757,000 waterfront mansion where they resided during Bush’s undergraduate career.

The home was officially owned by a man who had many close connections with NFL agents.

One USC national championship later, the precedent set by the NCAA with its critically acclaimed investigative prowess becomes more comical when coupled with the controversial investigations the NCAA has since conducted.

The NCAA’s response to the USC scandal in comparison to the situation at UNC serves to highlight the organization’s dependence on high-profile teams to sustain its power — and the discrepancies aren’t going unnoticed.

Just two months after the NCAA arrived, UNC felt compelled to hold 13 players out of the opening game of the 2010 football season. Meanwhile, Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State did not even have to miss his bowl game despite selling a ring and game jersey from a previous conference championship because he was supposedly unaware this would violate the NCAA’s vaunted amateurism principle.

The NCAA even suspended a UNC player for staying with a former Tar Heel, whom they thought could have agent ties.

The methodical and diligent NCAA issued a courageous ruling in a matter of a few hours that Cam Newton was an eligible amateur athlete after being presented with a load of damning evidence against him.

Ignorance truly is bliss. However, it is becoming more apparent this phrase applies much more to the NCAA than to anyone else. After all, one of Newton’s first lines in his Heisman acceptance speech was to acknowledge that his parents do a lot of “behind the scenes” work that goes unnoticed.

These suspicious inconsistencies from the NCAA are far from limited to the sport of football. Oklahoma State fans will tell you that the obstinate NCAA investigative process is about as merciful as the enhanced interrogations used on war criminals.

Two years ago, OSU’s best wide receiver was suspended for an entire season for lying to the NCAA about eating a meal.

Meanwhile, Bruce Pearl of Tennessee was violating NCAA rules with marvelous frequency. Pearl promptly lied to NCAA investigators about his actions, yet the NCAA has expressed admirable compassion for the multi-millionaire coach by having yet to issue a punishment.

While Pearl already received a conference-issued suspension, the NCAA’s decision to harshly punish an amateur athlete while leaving a highly compensated head coach unscathed for seemingly the same crime is ludicrous.

In order to regain the public’s trust, the NCAA needs to dramatically increase transparency and consistency and try to deviate from its dependence on high-profile athletes and schools to help its bottom line become solvent. Until then, the NCAA will continue to be defenseless against skeptics who argue its disingenuous motives are in direct conflict with its ideological mission.

Sam Ellis is a sports columnist for the Daily Tar Heel. He is a senior econ and exercise and sports science major from Chapel Hill, N.C. Contact him at swellis@email.Unc.Edu.