It's official: A.J. Green will not be available to Georgia until Oct. 2 at Colorado.
The NCAA turned down Georgia's appeal late on Friday afternoon. Its student-athlete reinstatement committee upheld the decision the NCAA announced on Sept. 8.
The news was announced through Georgia, which was told the NCAA would not be issuing a release on the appeal.
"The NCAA Division I Committee for Student-Athlete reinstatement upheld the staff's decision for repayment and a four game rationale, but we do not have any further to share," NCAA spokesman Stacy Osburn said in an email on Friday night.
Georgia has already played two games without Green. It will now play without him on Saturday against No. 12 Arkansas, and a week later at Mississippi State.
"Our concentration is the same as the last two weeks which is preparing for the next game," head coach Mark Richt said in a statement. "We'll look forward to A.J.¹s return for the Colorado game on Oct. 2."
Georgia athletics director added in a statement: "We respect the committee's decision and will focus on moving forward."
Green was suspended after he sold a game jersey for $1,000 to Chris Hawkins, a former North Carolina player the NCAA defined as an agent. (Hawkins, who is facing felony cocaine trafficking charges in Georgia, has denied he is an agent or works for one.)
Richt said the team built most of its gameplan this week assuming it would not have Green.
EDIT: In my original post it was stated that the appeal was heard and turned down by the legislative affairs committee. That was our understanding of the process from the Jeremiah Masoli-Mississippi case. But Georgia's release stated that the appeal was heard by the student-athlete reinstatement committee.
Friday, September 17, 2010
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23 comments:
I would love to know who is on that committee.
i'm sure committee is just dan mullen and bobby petrino.
errrrrrrrr "the committee." man i wish there were an edit button.
Screw the NCAA. Schwarz would chopped them
Can't say I'm too surprised by this decision. Man, do I feel sorry for the Buffaloes.
I would like them to five an explanation for the dour games! They shouldn't be aloud to suspend him like this and not five a good reason as to why! Four games is unheard of for something like this!
DO you have any explanation as to why AJ gets 4 games and the guy from Alabama who accepted double the money from an actual agent got 2...
They really need to start using Aron White... I know he is #2 on the depth chart but he caught some of the big passes for us last year and as good as Orson is Aron seems to be better suited for the TE position.. interested to see if Bobo (who needs to get fired) really starts throwing to our tight ends this game now that AJ will be out...
Is UGA that dependent on ONE person????
In response to the question above about why Marcell Darius at Bama only got a two game suspension, it was because he was so honest and upfront about the incident.
This stinks, but hopefully we take our anger out on some 'Hogs tomorrow rather than folding up.
Seth: thanks for keeping us updated. Go enjoy your time with your folks.
Seth,
How about some ole' Paul Harvey journalism here? I would like to "know the rest of the story"! Something doesn't add up. I know you're hearing something, what is it?
Big Ben 4 games for sexual assault
Vincent Jackson 4 games for 2nd DUI arrest
AJ green 4 games for selling his jersey
At least he didn't get the dez bryant
NCAA must like UGA a little more than ok state
With that said what kind of example is the NFL is setting with light penalties and no over sight of agents
Clearly, there's more to this than has been publicly reported, and if the NCAA isn't going to offer an explanation -- my thinking is they owe one -- then UGA should air it out. Because it does not look like Georgia's getting a fair shake here with what's been made public so far.
NT- I have to say that there Dareus was upfront because he knew he was had the moment all this stuff happened. My guess is AJ was just as upfront and that the only reason they even knew AJ had done anything is because he reported it. How else would they have known he did anything?
The problem is the rule book is black and white. The rule is unjust overkill, built largely on an over-reaction to ringgate back in 2003, but it is there in explicit text. If you make X dollars from selling your paraphernalia, then you pay back the money and you miss "1/3" of your team's regular season (i.e., 4 games).
Philosophically, you cannot insist on being granted clemency for "mitigating" circumstances. That is up to the good graces of the enforcer of the rule. I think this "Dareus was so up front and honest" thing is like a prison warden praising the inmate who flipped on his compatriots: it is an ugly part of an ugly system, and nobody should use it to justify a single iota of anything about how the NCAA has dealt with this (and it, at best, makes Dareus a snitch, not a hero who manned up).
But, all that said, this is simply a case where the NCAA has Green dead to rights. He violated a clear rule, and there can be no doubt about it. Mercy can always be asked for, but there is no right to it (and mercy given to others doesn't entitle you to mercy, either...there's a parable from Jesus about this, actually, if that's your thing.)
The NCAA wants to wield a big stick right now, and A.J. Green committed the right infraction to get himself on the other side of that stick. The end.
And, finally, any system that enforces its own rules about who can participate in the system is going to be subject to these moral equivalency arguments. "This guy flew to Thailand and molested zoo animals, and he only got 3 games. But this other guy violated a league drug policy, and not one about performance-enhancing drugs, and was banned for 8 games. Doesn't seem fair..." etc. The point of rules within a system, though, is not to outline a moral philosophy. It is to govern the parameters for participating in the system itself, and nothing more. In other words, Monopoly rules have to do with when you can build a hotel and when you have to go to Jail without passing Go, but have absolutely nothing to say about whether a person convicted of rape should be allowed to play the game. These are simply different questions.
You can have a "dishonor" clause built into your rules, like the NFL does, and feel your way through dealing with grave moral and criminal errors that don't direclty effect the game in any way. But that is pretty haphazard by its very nature.
Maybe the NCAA should simply bar all convicted murderers from ever playing college football, for example. Maybe. But that really has nothing to do with the "rules" of football, or the rules of eligibility as we usually conceive them. A.J. broke a "house" rule for being in this particular restaraunt. The fact that some much worse people still get to eat in the restaraunt is just the way the world works, not a sing that anyone thinks that what A.J. is on a worse moral level than the evil dudes.
If they would have given the Alabama player the same punishment this would be fine. But this favortism of one player or one school over another is just flat wrong.
If BOBO thinks he can remain "conservative" and "cautious" with his play calling even when his team is losing and not lose his head on the chopping board, he should remember Martinez. I would rather have coaching changes sooner than later even in the middle of the year. Recruits still have several months to rethink their decisions anyway if ever some will change their minds.
Xon - thanks for that extremely lucid explaination; also, I agree about if we can't win w/o AJ, we don't deserve to win. Regardless, I'll be cheering for our Dawgs all season, through thick and thin, because I'm a true fan, not some jerk who thinks that he somehow magically knows more than coaches who have spent their entire lives involved in the game.
Now, that said, I do really wish Bobo would use the TEs more... I dunno, maybe split out Charles like Indy does w/Dallas Clark?
When the Dawgs sold their rings the NCAA knew it was against the rules, but realized they didn't have the rule in place. They got caught with their pants down and felt embarrassed. They wanted to nail them and couldn't. So here comes AJ Green from the same school doing the same thing and they got their revenge. Pure and simple. It wasn't bama that forced the creation of this rule. It was UGA. And UGA paid for it here. If it happens again, don't expect the same outcome as AJ unless you play at UGA. The folks at the NCAA are that petty and vindictive I assure you.
Thanks AJ for screwing over your team your last season in Athens. I hope it was worth it. It's a shame you'll never go down as the best. You pissed that away along with your integrity. We might be 2-3 at best in your absense.
Anon 10:16 AJ will still make more in one year than you will make in your life so STFU. We need him a heck of a lot more than he needs to be coached up?? by Tony Ball. Tony has had a hard time breaking of that nasty habit of catching the ball. The less time spent with Tony the better for AJ.
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