I don't remember the specifics of the situation, but at first glance this reminds me of the LeBron James/Hummer scandal with the OHSAA a few years ago.  In both situations, the governing body (NCAA/OHSAA) loathed the athlete because they knew he was getting over on them, receiving gifts here and there, manipulating the system, etc., and they couldn't touch them because the athlete was always ahead of the game on them.  So they look until they find a crack and then they pounce.  If this was just about any other athlete they most likely wouldn't have even looked into this.

BTW, I'm not saying that I disagree with this.  O.J. has so abused the system that if I were them, I'd find anything to nail his ass with as well.

I understand the anger at Mayo abusing the system in some respects.  But I can't get down with anything the NCAA does in regards to this rule.

They continually abuse the spirit of the rule time-and-time again.  It was originally passed in order to protect certain athletes from gaining an advantage that other athletes on their level--i.e. college--would not be privy too.

Yet the NCAA Hitlers have taken it and screwed kids over for receiving the smallest of things.  There was a kid last season who's father died.  He received payment from someone in his family for the plane to ticket to go home and attend the funeral.  The NCAA investigated the kid, and gave him a small suspension, because they said that it violated this stupid "gifts" rule because no other athlete got money for plane tickets.

IT WAS HIS DAD'S FUNERAL!

Then there was another kid this season, I believe with FSU, who's father was killed in an accident, and his mother is in jail.  He was left with taking care of his younger brother in order to prevent the brother from being taken away by Child Services.

The community got wind of what this athlete was doing and collected money to help with the cost of taking care of the younger brother.  Plus, they offered to give his brother rides to school, etc. to help out.

The NCAA denied the community the ability to do that because they said it violated this stupid "gifts" rule.  Are you kidding me?

I don't like the way the NCAA treats their athletes.  And on top of all this, they still refuse a football playoff because they want all the freaking money they can get their hands on, and none of that revenue is going to the players.  Ridiculous.

Lastly, Carmelo is known for giving away tickets to all sorts of folks in the community.  So it wasn't just because Mayo is Mayo.  

Why is this an NCAA violation? That's what I don't get. It wasn't for recruiting advantages or advances in game play. It was just one NBA player extending it to another future NBA player. What's the big deal.

In this instance, Jimmy, I agree, it's not like there was any advantage given to USC.  There are definitely cases where this could be abused severely; this wasn't one of them.

The problem is that the NCAA has to handle a lot of these cases in a one size fits all manner not necessarily because they want to be the bad guy in every single situation (Hitlers?  Really?), but because they just don't have the resources to see grays in violations.  They pretty much have to start everything out as a black/white violation or not.  You've got schools and coaches with millions invested in their programs, and all the NCAA has to enforce them with are basically a bunch of interns and short-term underpaid employees.

The NCAA has to view every questionable act as a possible violation because, let's face it, a lot of the time they're proven right.  There's a reason why the NCAA rulebook is so thick; because coaches and programs keep finding ways to circumvent the spirit of the rules, and they have to keep closing loopholes.  Sadly, though they are human interest stories that make them look stupid when all the facts are known, I have no doubt that if they just looked the other way every time someone came forward with a tragic case, pretty quickly coaches would start finding a way to take advantage of their benevolence.

It's much ado about nothing. I disagree with Bret's entire premise that the NCAA is going to get him because OHSAA or NCH Principal couldn't. So many of these blue chippers are handled differently in school. Is it fair? No. But Mayo isn't the first prime time recruit to come in with a "blue" chip on his shoulder. And spare me the talk about the woeful, underpaid NCAA employees. The NCAA takes advantage and uses kids like Mayo for financial gain. Then they take some kind of moral high ground when they think they need to. But, make no mistake, they'll still exploit him. And yes, OJ needs them just as much to parlay him an NBA job. But he isn't at USC to be a student-athlete. He's there to ride it out until he's NBA eligible, which is next year. Then he'll get drafted. If the NBA didn't have the 1 year rule, OJ would've skipped college altogether.