June 12. 2009
The Alabama football program learned yesterday that 21 victories earned on the football field over a three year period are really not victories anymore.  Additionally, 15 Alabama athletic programs were placed on probation along with the football team.

see link:  http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/31245888/　

It is an interesting penalty when the NCAA decides to change the outcome of a game that took place several years back.  Last week we blogged about the Memphis basketball program that may have to surrender many wins from its 2007-2008 basketball season, and looked back at Villanova's basketball runner-up in the NCAA tourney of 1971 that was stripped of its second place finish.  And who can forget the University of Michigan’s great Fab Five team lead by Chris Webber? Well, all of those great victories should be forgotten, because they were all forfeited many years after the fact.  Now Florida State coach Bobby Bowden may have to give back some of his football victories because of violations within the FSU athletic department.

Forfeiting victories that have already taken place raises questions. If you're a fan of a school that had to turn in a victory for a loss, do you have to return the exuberance that you felt at the game watching your team win, or will your depression following the announcement of the loss make things even and right? Will there be a chilling effect on post-game victory celebrations? Why, the uncertainty resulting from these reversals might greatly curtail spending on food and drink, adversely affecting national economic recovery!

Maybe there are better penalties for the NCAA to use than altering the records. Why not require that all booster money earmarked for the athletic department go instead to academic programs? Perhaps it should be the history department that gets the funding, since the NCAA is interested in rewriting history.