Bobby Bowden Should Be Next in Line for NCAA Makeup Call
By Rock Westfall
With Reggie Bush getting his Heisman Trophy back, Bobby Bowden deserves a hearing. The NCAA deleted 12 wins from his record due to a dubious academic cheating scandal involving 61 student-athletes. The NCAA's past ham-handed and selective ways are being corrected, and Bowden deserves full restitution.
NCAA Continues its Retreat into Realism
Few organizations are as loathed as the NCAA. The governing body ranks with politicians for the public perception of being abusive, corrupt, and incompetent.
The selective enforcement of rules has always been a point of irritation for coaches, administrators, fans, and media. The late great Jerry Tarkanian said it best in regards to the NCAA and its ways, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky that they punished Cleveland State.”
When Tarkanian won over $2 million in a civil suit against the NCAA, he called it his “greatest victory.” Considering Tark won a national championship, that is quite a claim, and it is also completely understandable.
Since the 2021 Supreme Court ruling, a rare 9-0 unanimous one, that athletes could be compensated the NCAA has been in the full retreat. Now, the organization has gotten to the point of being feckless and no longer feared. The NCAA’s main function these days seems to be throwing cocktail parties at its March Madness basketball tournament and collecting a sizeable check for doing so. But thanks to that SCOTUS ruling, the NCAA has been functionally emasculated.
To his credit, the new NCAA President, Charlie Baker, has been more forthright and realistic about getting the NCAA up to speed on the modern realities that it faces. What was once considered cheating is now legal or, at worst, not worth worrying about.
Reggie Bush getting his Heisman Trophy back was a classic example of the new ways of college sports. While some say the pendulum has swung too far back the other way, perhaps it should, at least on these matters.
A Minor Scandal in the Grand Scheme of Things
In 2009, the NCAA vacated 12 of Bowden’s wins because of an academic cheating scandal regarding one music class that was also offered to non-athletes. Academic cheating is one rule that the NCAA could and should enforce, as long as that is done consistently, which, of course, it has never been.
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The best example of the NCAA’s lack of consistency in rules enforcement was when the University of North Carolina literally ran 35 fake classes while its men’s basketball team was en route to the 2004-05 NCAA championship.
It was discovered that the classes did not meet, were supposedly done only on paper, and that they yielded high and easy grades. Furthermore, one of the players, Rashad McCants, told ESPN he rarely went to class for about half of his career at Chapel Hill. In fact, McCants made the Dean’s List for an A-minus average for four classes that he never attended.
Incredibly, North Carolina escaped unscathed, keeping its national title. In like manner, head coach Roy Williams kept all of his wins. Despite all of that, the NCAA ruled there was not enough evidence to warrant punishment. Seriously.
In another bizarre ruling that turns a lot of stomachs, the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had 112 wins restored by the NCAA in 2015. The case involved the horrible Jerry Sandusky pedophile scandal and its related Penn State football culture during Paterno’s time.
Bobby Bowden’s Impactful Legacy
Bobby Bowden’s current win total is 377, second in FBS football to Joe Paterno’s 409. At the end of their careers, Bowden and Paterno jockeyed back and forth for the lead. Paterno’s career ended in disgrace, while Bowden’s ended in a case of not knowing when to leave the stage.
Bobby Bowden won two national titles and 12 ACC championships. He was something of a southern good ol’ boy in the best possible way. Bowden’s players relate stories of his kindness, wisdom, sincere Christian faith, and guidance.
Bowden had a far greater impact on improving the lives of young men than most coaches. Many fans and media members said he was too lenient with wayward souls in his program and for giving out too many second chances. Yet Bowden would succinctly reply, “What if it was YOUR son?”
Compared to the hideous NCAA transgressions of the past, many of which were never punished, Bowden was a saint. He was also a transformative coach who impacted countless lives in the best way.
Give back the 12 wins. NOW!
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