Johnny

[Eric]

Not only that, but you can add Ohio State players being suspended for selling memorabilia (AFTER the bowl game...) and Miami being in purgatory for three years.

[Spence]

Those players Dad's didn't have enough money to hire a lawyer that could scare the infractions committee. Besides Johnny Football is a marketable brand for the NCAA - Oh wait, they don't exploit players for money.

[donovan]

"There was no evidence he took money for the signings"....so all those memorabilia dealers are liars...all of them.....

[Spence]

When the dealer said would you sign these for an "extra" amount that couldn't have meant he was getting paid.

The secret is to lie, get a lawyer, and don't allow the NCAA into your life. They are toothless wonders at the NCAA.

[Derek]

A half a game against a punching bag team. That'll learn them!!!

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2013/johnny-manziel-suspended-rice/

With respect to the first half suspension, it appears that Manziel’s violation could be a minor one. NCAA Bylaw 12.5.2.2. basically states if the student-athlete’s name is used to promote a product, then the student athlete must take steps to stop the activity. So, even if Manziel didn’t get paid, he could have been found to have broken a rule, hence a suspension.

So what about the NCAA selling their image for use with EA Sports Vid-ya games????????????????? It's OK for YOU to sell them, but if they do....suspended. Makes a ton of sense to me.

I'm sorry, but if this was any other less known player, he would have been suspended for several games.

I don't have anything against him at all, but the apparent double standard makes me nauseous.

[Spence]

That is what bothers me. I think the players should be able to make money on their image. I also believe, though, that if you break the rules you should be punished. He broke the rules. The NCAA doesn't want to mess with his dad. If you can't afford a high priced lawyer, you are going to be punished. I guess the NCAA is like our legal system.

[Eric]

It's just absurd how they manage it. I understand the "case-by-case" rationale, but the consistency and speed with which they make these rulings seems to not have anything in common. I also find it funny that they came to this decision just before the season began. That seems kind of convenient. An honest, real investigation may have spilled over into the season. I have no way of proving that they just came to a slip-shod resolution because of the timing, but that would be almost too convenient for it to happen randomly.

[donovan]

This was written before the punishment.
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[billybud]

That is what bothers me. I think the players should be able to make money on their image. I also believe, though, that if you break the rules you should be punished. He broke the rules. The NCAA doesn't want to mess with his dad. If you can't afford a high priced lawyer, you are going to be punished. I guess the NCAA is like our legal system.

It seems a rather easy case to investigate....

!..Talk to Manzeil...

NCAA..."John, if you own up, we'll go light and suspend you for a handful of games"

Johnny..."I didn't take any money".

NCAA..."Let's see..You went to a room of a dealer, signed a thousand autographs and then bought new rims for your car. But got no money"

Johnny..."I didn't take any money."

2...Talk to the dealers

NCAA...."Did you pay Johnny Manzeil?"

Dealers..."We don't talk to the NCAA as a matter of principle. Until we been subpoenaed to testify under oath, we stand on our principle. Go fish."

[Spence]

It is as easy as they want it to be. They looked into email records, bank records, and phone records of the players at Ohio State. In this case, in the face of the family's high powered lawyer, they decided to ask him some questions and take his answers at face value. So it's a case of believing the white kid from a good family or a case of money talks. Either way, the NCAA comes out of this with nowhere to hide.

[Brian Roastbeef]

That is what bothers me. I think the players should be able to make money on their image. I also believe, though, that if you break the rules you should be punished. He broke the rules. The NCAA doesn't want to mess with his dad. If you can't afford a high priced lawyer, you are going to be punished. I guess the NCAA is like our legal system.

This. The fact that players are prohibited from making money on their image while every third-party hack and their evil video-game corporation brother can is a stupid, outdated bullcrap rule. Yet, there are many stupid outdated bullcrap rules in life, and we all have to abide by them. Unless we have craptons of money in our family and the willingness to tie everybody up in court for months, in which case we make easy deals and don't have to live like the peasants.

That said, it isn't at all surprising. I ranked A&M highly in my preseason poll figuring that it would be something light - perhaps just some sort of probation slap on the wrist non-entity, or at worst them needing to find their way past Rice and SHSU without him. No way there would have been a suspension that didn't see him suit up at home for 'Bama. Even if it weren't for the legal nuisance of it, the NCAA wouldn't want a case like this getting any higher profile than it already is. Pressuring it against Ohio St. is different to them. It's easy to play the media and just group them as a faceless big school getting a just punishment. Manziel on the other hand is a guy with a face, likable vs. an NCAA rule that doesn't have nearly as much of a capacity for popularity. It's just too much of a headache for them to not make a deal in this case.

Meanwhile CBS plans on airing a big mid-afternoon game between #5 or so A&M and #1 Alabama. No way they'd be content airing instead a 24-6 snoozer missing one team's biggest star, or even #1 Alabama vs. #17 A&M that somehow lost to Rice thanks to their QB being out. TV matters. It's the same as Tiger Woods receiving a two stroke penalty for a move at Augusta that would have DQed every other player from the rest of the weekend. Really an unfair deal, and a horrible reminder that rules (sometimes not even just the stupid outdated bullcrap ones either) only apply to some but not at all surprising either. Pointless and I say all this though I like Manziel (not so much Tiger Woods).

So Manziel gets a half on the bench. A&M gets the task of walking into the locker room in that game no worse than down 10 or so - Rice shouldn't be entirely ignored but still should be easy to manage. CBS gets their player for Alabama, and ESPN for the second half of their game against Rice that has little other reason to be on TV. A&M gets to continue justifying charging out the nose for tickets to that 'Bama game. And NCAA gets to pretend to the casuals that never did pay close attention, that they totally laid down the law and defended their stupid rule. Whatever.

[Spence]

Yeah, I agree with most, except that Ohio State's Devier Posey is a face. A kid trying to make it in football who got 5 games because a booster over paid $3.07 more than he was aloud too for Posey to play in a charity golf outing. That $3.07 ended Posey's college career and while it did not stop him from going to the NFL, it cost him lots of money. Not having that season's numbers entering the draft.

Rules are rules and If the rules are broken then you pay the price. While I believe what Posey got was exessive, it was still up to him to make sure he was in compliance. Not the charity, not the booster, but him. Personal responsibility. Something it appears the NCAA is willing to let Johnny Manziel slide on. That is my problem with this whole thing. If the NCAA inforced their rules consistently, then I would have nothing to say. I didn't defend Ohio State players or the head coach, at the time, because they did what they were accused of doing. So did Johnny football.

[Cane from the Bend]

I think that with Posey it was more of an oversight --- it's easier for the NCAA to blow that up, than it is for a guy to know he got a whole 3 bucks more than he should have.

There's a great difference in giving a guy an excessive punishment, and a down right absurd one.

And if the NCAA felt as though they had enough to go on with Manziel, to give him an penalty at all, then I do not see how his infraction could be less than three dollars.

Either the NCAA needs to be more forthcoming with what they had, or it's time to scrap the system and start over.

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[Spence]

I think that with Posey it was more of an oversight --- it's easier for the NCAA to blow that up, than it is for a guy to know he got a whole 3 bucks more than he should have.

There's a great difference in giving a guy an excessive punishment, and a down right absurd one.

And if the NCAA felt as though they had enough to go on with Manziel, to give him an penalty at all, then I do not see how his infraction could be less than three dollars.

Either the NCAA needs to be more forthcoming with what they had, or it's time to scrap the system and start over.

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Posey had been in trouble for selling some stuff earlier- which is why he lost the first 5 games. But he really didn't do anything wrong the second go round.

[RazorHawk]

Was the penalty from the NCAA or Texas A&M. If it truly did come from the NCAA there should either have been a substantial penalty, or none at all.