NCAA Continues to Torture UConn as Postseason Waiver Is Denied

Once again, the NCAA has used its senseless and ridiculous powers to screw the University of Connecticut.

There's no other way to put it, the NCAA is screwing UConn at every corner, making life a living hell for the university and head coach Jim Calhoun, who already has enough to deal with medically.

On Friday, the NCAA announced that it had declined UConn's proposed self-imposed punishments for falling under the new Academic Performance Rating limits as set by retroactive rules put into place this past October. The rejection of the proposed punishments means that UConn would be ineligible to play in postseason play during the 2012-13 season.

Last October, new APR standards were put into place that required the four-year APR score of a school to be 930 or else face penalties from the NCAA.

What makes this a difficult situation, one that has many at Connecticut riled up, is that the new numbers were put into place with the past several years still contributing. The current APR includes academic results and graduation rates from 2007-2011.

What this means is that the current team is forced to take punishment for the likes of Hasheem Thabeet, Ater Majok, Stanley Robinson, Jerome Dyson and A.J. Price, who featured on some of the less-bright UConn teams of recent memory.

UConn has already received initial punishment, as it faced loss of scholarships when the rules took effect, adding to the scholarship loss from the improper recruiting of Nate Miles.

With the threat of postseason banishment upon them, UConn proposed self-imposed sanctions, which included a reduction from 27 regular-season games to 23 and keeping Calhoun from meeting with recruits off campus for the Fall 2012 semester. These actions were rejected by the NCAA on Friday afternoon.

"UConn’s view," said school president Susan Herbst in a public letter on Friday morning, "is that it would be incredibly unfortunate that our current men’s basketball student-athletes could be punished for the problematic academic performance of past teams—students who have not been enrolled at UConn for over two years. That decision would be unfair to innocent young people, which is baffling to us.

"Our bottom line is that regulatory bodies should not change rules retroactively. We believe that the NCAA should focus on the future, so that people have the chance to work toward positive change. They should not dredge up the past, and then hurt innocent parties of the present."

Herbst also pointed out that the university has already made strides with a new academic plan for the players which is already producing positive results. Three members of the men's team will join a total of 346 student-athletes at UConn who will be honored on Saturday during the women's game against Georgetown for achieving a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Others are not far behind and the belief that members of the team do not go to class has no backing.

UConn is taking action. Coaches and assistants scurry around UConn making sure players are in their proper classes and punishments are inflicted on those who fail to show up. As mentioned above, academic progress in recent semesters has improved drastically as the school and program are cracking down.

This is the part that makes no sense. UConn has done what needs to be done. During the Ryan Boatright scandal, or as it should properly be known the NCAA's malicious harassment of the Boatright family, the university held the freshman out of nine games while the NCAA worked in its mysterious ways to try and turn Boatright and his mother into criminals.

Now with the APR issues, UConn has already reduced scholarships for the academic performance of past teams.

Now, even with the incredible improvements since the arrival of the sophomore class, UConn still is trying to show the NCAA that it is in its good graces and was willing to impose penalties on itself for the poor academic performances of those past years. Despite this, the NCAA refuses to show any acknowledgement of the university's improvements.

They refuse to show any leniency despite the fact that UConn has been punishing itself in every instance the NCAA has had issue: reducing scholarships, benching a star freshman and a morale booster on the team, and now, reducing non-conference games and keeping their coach off the recruiting path, but that isn't enough for the NCAA, which seems to have taken to getting high on the miseries of UConn.

Administration, fans and students alike are beyond anger with the treatment of the school in recent months and are tired of the target being on their back.

"I honestly think that the NCAA has something against UConn with its constant harassment of our players and everything else," says UConn sophomore Edward Alchrona. "They're punishing us for a rule change that we've already been punished for and it's wrong."

"It's unfair to the school and the players that the NCAA will just completely deny the waiver and not take into consideration the academic progress the team has been showing and not let them play in the 2012-13 postseason," said sophomore Lucas Luong.

Freshman Chris Ambrose has been very vocal throughout the year about the NCAA's treatment of the school and basketball program and is very disgruntled.

"I can't put into words my frustration right now," Ambrose said. "Reformation of the whole NCAA needs to happen."

"UConn has been punished already for the past with scholarships," Ambrose continued. "I feel as though the NCAA is trying to make an example of UConn when there has got to be far worse cases around the nation."

Whatever the case, Friday's decision by the NCAA is one that adds much more to a war that has been brewing for some time now—the war between the NCAA and the University of Connecticut. With any luck, UConn will win out and put one on the board for the good guys as they try to take the fight to the dictatorship of college sports.

All student quotes were obtained first-hand.