NCAA Decision
John Romanelli
December 22, 1999

OK, so the NCAA decision is in and Notre Dame has been placed on probation for the first time in its storied history.  And this means - what, exactly? 

We lost two scholarships, one this year, and one next year.  Consider this: we had a scholarship reserved for CJ Leak last year, which went unused on signing day.  Did it affect the team?  No.  The scholarship, I imagine, was awarded to a senior walk-on.  The loss of scholarships will not affect us in the slightest. 

But perhaps that was exactly the point.  Let's face it - the violations are by and large completely ridiculous.  Did these violations contribute in any way to make ND football better?  No, of course not.  That's why the punishment was not severe. 

Let's look at it from another angle.  Would the NCAA be stupid enough to try to take on NBC, by taking ND off the air?  No.  The unwanted publicity would only embarass the NCAA.  Would they keep ND from the bowls?  No, ND is too much of a TV ratings draw.  Again, the NCAA would be cutting its nose off to spite its face.  Hence the loss of scholarships.  Ordinarily, scholarships are docked when the violations were used to influence recruiting.  This was not the case here, but what other punishment could we get? 

The reality is that the red faces under the Golden Dome were our punishment.  Consider the sentence "time already served".  In addition, recruiting was off to a sluggish start with the allegations hanging over our head.  One would think that with the disappointing season, blue-chip players would want to come to ND because of the potential for early playing time.  Yet that has not so far been the case, and the allegations must be a factor. 

One final comment: it is ridiculous that Kimberly Dunbar was ever considered a booster.  The $25 fee to join the QB club, as I understand, was all donated to charity, not to the athletic program.  Hence, by definition, she was not a booster.  However, I think the Dunbar fiasco served to prove that there was a greater problem (football players flew to Las Vegas to sit ringside at a heavyweight championship fight - is there something wrong with this picture?), hence the probation. 

John Romanelli, '91