The National Collegiate Athletic Association has avoided embarrassing itself, as it decided Tuesday to reverse its earlier decision, thereby allowing a former Marine who served his country for five years to play college football immediately this season.
When Antioch, Tenn. native Steven Rhodes graduated from high school five years ago, many colleges heavily recruited him to play football for their schools. Instead, Rhodes chose to serve his country and joined the Marine Corps. He served for five years and finished his mandatory duty earlier this year. He then decided to fulfill his athletic dream and play Division-I college football.
Rhodes enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University and asked the coaches if he could have a walk-on try out. The Marine sergeant, who is 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, made the team and has played both tight end and defensive end thus far, but the NCAA decided it needed to get involved with the 24-year-old’s desire to play.
The collegiate athletic governing body ruled that Rhodes must sit out this season and lose a year of eligibility because he had participated in a loosely organized football league through the military while he was on active duty. The NCAA cited an arbitrary rule that says a player must lose a year of eligibility if he or she had participated in an organized sports league.
The NCAA created the rule to discourage players from transferring from one school to another, forcing them to sit out a year if they decide to make that choice. That makes sense, as the NCAA wants to limit players from breaking their commitments and creating havoc.
It didn’t, however, make any sense in Rhodes’ situation, and the NCAA ultimately made the right decision not to penalize Rhodes. Here is a young man who had served his country proudly for five years, delayed his chance to play college football and hadn’t committed any infractions. Denying him the chance to play right away would have been an absurd and illogical decision, one of many that would have showed just how out of touch the NCAA is with reality.
The NCAA is not the government where its laws are mandated by the U.S. Constitution, making it difficult to change a law or to make exceptions. It changed its decision in Rhodes’ case and allowed him to play. NCAA officials had said they were correct in their initial decision to take a season away because the league in which Rhodes played had officials, and he and his teammates wore matching uniforms. That was true, but the league was loosely organized with men between the ages of 18 and 50 participating. At times, teams waited up to six weeks to play in between games.
The NCAA has a history of making exceptions to its own rules. Before last season, it allowed Penn State football players to transfer to any school without the penalty of sitting out for a year after the NCAA sanctioned the school for the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
Thankfully, they rethought their initial decision here, too, and made the same decision for Rhodes since he didn’t participate in a league that was competitive.
This decision is a small step in the right direction for NCAA, which has an image problem of its own, and Rhodes’ situation is just one of many that demonstrate the organization’s need to change. The NCAA is investigating Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel for allegedly making money off of his autograph. The NCAA in this case is hypocritical, as it could punish Manziel and A&M for violating the rule that states players are not allowed to make money off of their names during their college-playing days. Yet, if people were to visit the NCAA website, they could order a Manziel jersey for which the NCAA sells for $100.
The NCAA needs to be changed, and the Rhodes decision is a small, but good start.
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Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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