Double standard?

[broderickpresident]

Where was this ruling for Garland?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Georgetown says the NCAA has cleared center Josh Smith to play basketball immediately, starting with the Hoyas' opener against Oregon in Seoul, South Korea.

Georgetown adds Wednesday that Smith was granted a waiver for last season, when he played in six games before transferring from UCLA, meaning he has two years of eligibility remaining.

Coach John Thompson III says Smith, listed at 6-foot-10 and 350 pounds in the Hoyas' media guide, "has to maintain a high level of commitment on and off the court."

Georgetown faces Oregon on Nov. 8.

[durenduren]

The parallels are definitely there. Very active first season followed by single digit appearances on a sophomore campaign. Welcome to the NCAA, where down is up and common sense doesn't exist.

[phillyhoops4life]

Oct 23, 2013 18:47:58 GMT -5 durenduren said:

The parallels are definitely there. Very active first season followed by single digit appearances on a sophomore campaign. Welcome to the NCAA, where down is up and common sense doesn't exist.

BCS-level schools hire former NCAA administrators as consultants and they are very aggressive in pursuit of waivers and favorable rulings....

I know of a kid attending a Big 5 school waiting for a ruling on 2 classes taken at a certain school... Meanwhile a BCS school got a favorable ruling on a player that took 7 classes at the same school....

Same school in question.... BCS boys lawyer up and go hard... Mid-majors tend to accept NCAA rulings...

The disparity is disgustingly unfair...

[MisterD]

It's funny too because Smith is literally double Garland.

[durenduren]

How I imagine the NCAA and BCS schools...

[stlexplorer]

Argument could be made that's Smith on the right. Twitter is abuzz that if there was ever a case to break the transfer regulations in NCAA this is going to be the one.

[La Salle 08]

The part about him being able to play immediately isn't what kills me, it's the fact that he played in games for UCLA in 3 seasons and will have 2 years of eligibility left! Vernon Goodridge lost a year of eligibility for playing in 1 NCAA sanctioned practice when he was 18 (or something close to that)!
Just makes you shake your head.

espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/51311/year/2013/joshua-smith

[phillyhoops4life]

And when the NCAA denied a waiver for an extra year of eligibility for Old Dominion's Donte Hill, I was told, by Kevin Lennon, the NCAA's vice president of academic and membership affairs, that the waiver was denied because Hill had participated in a preseason scrimmage while at Clemson, and that everybody understands that doing so accounts for a full year of eligibility. The rule regarding that is established and clear, Lennon said. So Hill's waiver was denied and, basically, not even worth discussing.

And yet Josh Smith is now getting two full years of eligibility despite him having played in 33 games at UCLA in 2010-11, in 32 games at UCLA in 2011-12, and in six games at UCLA in 2012-13. So, to summarize, that means Hill's one preseason scrimmage cost him a year of eligibility while Smith's six regular-season games did not.

How in the world could the NCAA possibly justify that?

www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24128933/josh-smith-cleared-to-play-at-georgetown-immediately

[durenduren]

There must be circumstances regarding his transfer that just haven't been leaked to the media or simply weren't released by him, his family, UCLA or Georgetown... Otherwise the NCAA just blew the doors off their own standards for waiver requirements following transfer which, while I wouldn't put it past those hypocritical morons to shoot themselves in the foot again, it'd be pretty egregious given how they've defended the stringent waiver requirements in the past, going so far as to initially deny that kid this offseason that had multiple deceased/dying relatives until the media guilted them. It can all be undone with one decision, and a new precedence is set.

[stlexplorer]

I read that word going around is he was granted the transfer immediately because of weight problems and his "treatment" by Howland at UCLA. The latter is causing an outrage by former coaches who work in the media on twitter saying how ridiculous it is.

[durenduren]

If the treatment thing wasn't because of his own actions, I could understand, but he's publicly spoken that the weight thing was because he didn't bother to care for himself, that he'd skip breakfast and lunch, then eat x amount of calories immediately following practice.

Maybe I'm trying to view this from perspective that the NCAA sucks, but seriously they mostly suck.

[luhoopsfan]

Using this as precedent maybe Garland can get another year of eligibility

[MisterD]

If that's actually the case, and maybe it is and that's shitty if it is, you punish Howland. You can't break your own rule because of flagrant violation and not punish the violator.

[MisterD]

And I mean trailing. You don't punish UCLA or anyone else. If some school wants him, it's minus a scholarship and he sits his first 5 games or something. Pretend he's a student who ate at Chili's without permission or something.

[durenduren]

Oct 24, 2013 22:02:47 GMT -5 MisterD said:

Pretend he's a student who ate at Chili's without permission or something.

"It could have been worse guys. He could have gone to Outback and gotten a week's worth of calories with the damn blooming onion." Agree with your point though.