Playing Softball on the Gridiron : NCAA continues toothless ‘penalties’ for college football violations

As another football season opens, it looks as if the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., for all its tough talk, is continuing a policy of soft penalties that offending schools usually experience more as an inconvenience than hard punishment.

Consider some of the major football programs that recently have served time in college football’s supposed version of Purgatory. Auburn, Miami of Florida, Texas A&M; and Washington all have been put on probation and all have emerged almost unscathed.

NCAA sanctions should be humbling. They should lead to college administrators and athletic departments cleaning house, not restocking with talent for an immediate run at the NCAA championship. Yet aside from Southern Methodist University, whose football program was shut down for two years in the late 1980s, few schools have suffered any major consequences for egregious behavior on the part of boosters, alumni, coaches, players or others. Some examples:

The University of Alabama: Despite being put on probation for using an ineligible player, forfeiting 11 games in the 1993 season and losing out on a bowl appearance, it kept the lifeblood of its program: television revenues and the majority of its scholarships.

Auburn University: Slapped with a two-year probation, Auburn amassed an eye-popping 20-2 record that included an undefeated season. This year the team emerges from probation ranked in the top 10 in most national polls.

University of Miami: The Hurricanes, who play the UCLA Bruins this weekend at the Rose Bowl, were on probation in the early 1980s for improper financial aid and recruiting violations. Hurricane players have maintained the team’s reputation for thuggery by run-ins with police, steroid and drug use and sexual assaults.

Across the country, school presidents and administrators stress the need for tighter standards. In the case of USC and UCLA, which have been on probation in the past, increased vigilance appears to have paid off. Yet when the big money rolls in at many schools, all too often the motivation to keep a program clean slips away, like a pass off the fingertips.