Oregon Faithful Vindicated in NCAA Ruling

After two years of inept NCAA investigations and accusations of extreme wrong-doing by any entity invested in the University of Oregon football team's demise (I'm looking at you, Oregon State and UW), the Ducks were hit with a paltry three years of probation and a loss of two scholarships over the next two years.

Yeah. 

Husky and Beaver fans were expecting a thunderclap of program-crippling sanctions and restrictions that would do to the Ducks what happened to the Huskies when they were blasted years ago. The puppies have only recently begun to show signs of life (I still love that UW went without a win in 2008).

As for the Beavers? They just naturally struggle--no sanctions could effectively do to that program what it already does to itself.

Here is what we know about this case:

• The Ducks were fully cooperative with the NCAA (read report in link above).
• The Ducks were within the boundaries of the rules at the time that they began working with Willie Lyles.
• The Ducks have since created a special position within the athletic department whose sole responsibility is limiting interactions between athletes and street agents/runners.
• The Ducks take compliance seriously. They have taken great administrative steps to ensure that this won't happen again, and I'm confident that they will continue to have great success in all of their athletic programs while doing it the right way.
• Lache Seastrunk, the poor kid at the center of this whole mess, never even carried the ball in a game for the Ducks. 

That last point is important to me, because I still hear that the Ducks cheated to make it to these last four BCS games (they won their last two). That's simply not true, and now Lache is tearing it up back in Texas and the Ducks are gearing up for another run at the national championship. Everyone should now be able to move forward happily.

I love my Ducks. The first thing I did this morning was to fly the Oregon flag outside the house. Come what may, I'm a Duck, and I support the team through it all--the highs and the lows.

But I'm thankful for today's outcome, to be sure. What many Oregon dissenters thought would be a program death knell today amounted to nothing less than a slap on the wrists, and that's how it should have been. Here's to hoping the draconian NCAA gets their bylaws and guidelines in shape so schools like Tennessee, Cal, and Oregon won't experience this same set of shenanigans in the future...