Kentucky Basketball: Are Wildcats and John Calipari Being Targeted by NCAA?

Kentucky fans are, admittedly, a little bit crazy sometimes. Fans don't line up for days at a time to watch a practice, like Kentucky fans do every year before March Madness, if they aren't a little nuts. So let's get that out of the way right off the bat. Kentucky fans are muy loco.

And they are sometimes a little bit paranoid.

Come to the Commonwealth sometime and ask around among the basketball fans that were alive when Kentucky was put on probation in the late 1980s. Ask them about the Emery envelope full of cash that was allegedly being sent to a recruit.

But when you do, get ready to hear all about an NCAA/UCLA led plot to get Kentucky. Because even though the Kentucky administration went along with the NCAA's findings of wrongdoing, most fans just don't accept the final word on the whole affair. 

[Full disclosure: I am one of those fans. Really, a school was dumb enough to just mail cash to a recruit and they didn't make sure the envelope was sealed tighter than Fort Knox? Come on.]

But that's neither here nor there. The point is Kentucky fans have a long history of not trusting the NCAA or the media that covers college basketball. And usually they come off as insane people with too much time on their hands. 

However, could they have a point after all?

I'm usually not one to buy into too many conspiracy theories, but I've got to say that the recent controversy over the University of Kentucky's decision to award a 500th win game ball to John Calipari does make one wonder. Is the NCAA really out to get John Calipari and Kentucky?

For those of you that don't know (and how could you not if you follow college basketball), the NCAA recently threatened to bring Kentucky before the Committee on Infractions if they did not apologize for claiming that John Calipari had won his 500th game this past season. Seriously, that was it. The NCAA was mad that Kentucky gave John Calipari a game ball with 500 written on it, a little bit of cake and an "attaboy" for a job well done.

According to the NCAA, Kentucky's actions were undermining the seriousness of the sanction placed on UMass and Memphis under Calipari's watch that led to 42 wins for those schools being vacated. As if that really matters to anyone or that anyone other than a "disgruntled fan" at another school even noticed.

Yes, the same organization that was fine with ineligible Ohio State Buckeyes playing in the Sugar Bowl to protect the integrity of the game was prepared to force Kentucky to come and beg to not be sanctioned for having cake. It was that absurd.

Kentucky fans predictably cried foul at what they claimed was selective enforcement.  And while Kentucky should have probably just admitted they were wrong and would correct the record in future media guides, the NCAA just had to stir the pot a little bit more when they stated that they weren't picking on Kentucky and John Calipari, but that they just didn't have the resources to monitor every school.

Surely you know what happened next. Kentucky fans flooded the NCAA with every similar circumstance they could find in only a matter of hours, ranging from vacated wins being counted in football at Alabama to basketball banners being hung my UMass itself in recognition of its vacated Final Four under Calipari. And as of yet, the NCAA doesn't appear to be taking any action on any of these other schools.

Again, this whole thing is incredibly silly and petty...from both sides. But you know what they say about some crazy people.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean it's not true.

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