Georgia Tech Football: Yellow Jackets Fail to Cooperate, They Deserve Punishment

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The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are the latest school to be hit with NCAA sanctions.

Georgia Tech must vacate their 2009 ACC Conference Championship, pay a $100,000 fine, and face four years of probation all in regards to the NCAA finding out student athletes and staff violated several rules, and then they refused to cooperate with investigators.

Not a smart move for the Yellow Jackets as they join the long list of schools the NCAA has been investigating.

According to sources of ESPN's Joe Schad, the NCAA investigated that a friend of an employee of an Atlanta sports agency gave a Georgia Tech football player multiple items of clothing worth $312.

The Georgia Tech players in question are Demaryius Thomas and Morgan Burnett. According to Zach Klien of WSB in Atlanta, Burnett texted him and said, "I did not knowingly or unknowingly receive any gifts from any agents during my time at Georgia Tech. These reports are baseless and false."

However, the NCAA found it to be true, and because the Yellow Jackets failed to cooperate, they were hit hard.

According to the committee, the university's failure to cooperate and meet the obligations of membership compounded the seriousness of the case by adding onto what was originally an isolated instance of impermissible benefits and preferential treatment, the NCAA said in a prepared statement.

This could have been avoided if Georgia Tech did the right thing, but unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, that didn't happen.

In addition to the fine, probation and loss of the 2009 ACC title, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions placed limits on men's basketball scholarships. The NCAA reduced the number of recruiting visits Georgia Tech was allowed to 10 for the next few years.

It's a shame the Yellow Jackets were hit this hard over a small incident, but they tried to cover things up.

It appeared to the committee that the institution attempted to manipulate the information surrounding potential violations involving (the student-athlete) so there would be enough doubt about its validity to justify the decision not to declare him ineligible, the Committee on Infractions said, according to the NCAA.

The truth is a powerful thing, and the Yellow Jackets wouldn't be hurting so much today if they had just told the truth.

Something to take away from this is what the NCAA will do to Ohio State. If the Yellow Jackets didn't cooperate with the NCAA and were hit pretty hard, then I wonder what the NCAA will do to a school that lied to them.

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