Well, well, well, pencil necks. The chickens, it would appear, have come home to roost. The NCAA press release concerning GTU's conviction for cheating its fool head off is fairly breathtaking reading. For an "Institute" that brays about its committment to academics, its integrity, its overall superior standing to other mere colleges in matters of ethics and honesty, this week certainly has been a revelation.

GTU is looking less like MIT on the Connector, and more like the love child of Jerry Tarkanian's UNLV and anyplace ever coached by Jackie Sherill.

Let's look at a couple of the highlights, shall we? I do all the work here, so you, loyal readers, can reap the benefits. The link is below, if you want to savor the flavor of the whole thing yourself.
INDIANAPOLIS --- The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has placed the Georgia Institute of Technology on two years probation and vacated records in several sports after the school improperly certified academically ineligible student-athletes to compete.

Ouch, baby. Very ouch. Widespread use of academically ineligible athletes at GTU. This wouldn't overlap with their brief moments of pigskin glory in the late 90s, would it?

The violations and penalties involve the sports of football, men's and women's track and field and women's swimming between the 1998-99 and 2004-05 academic years.

Hmmmm. Sure seems to overlap. I see "football" and "betweeen 1998-99" and "2004-05" right there. Quelle horreur, nerds. You've sucked since 2001. You can't even CHEAT consistenly and win. No wonder Braine conceded that GTU isnt a 9 or 10 win a year school. He knew what was coming and just admitted the obvious. If you can't win when you cheat, how can you win if you dont cheat? Maybe you nerds should have hired Bobby Lowder as a consultant.

The case involves 17 student-athletes over a six-year period being certified as making satisfactory progress toward their degrees, even though they didn't meet the standards contained in NCAA bylaws.

Wow. 17 athletes. Want to bet they werent all swimmers?

All 17 student-athletes – 11 of whom were on the football team -- were certified and received signatures from the four campus officials. However, a large number of non-degree-applicable courses were included.

Hmmm. 11 football players? I did NOT see that one coming at ALL. Surely this was just a little paperwork glitch, right? A, you should excuse the expression, TECHnicality, not anything major? I mean, you allllllllllll tell us constantly how upright you are, right?

In one case, 17 of a student-athlete's 24 hours did not count toward a degree. Another used 12 non-degree-applicable courses in two consecutive years. There were also several examples of nine or 10 non-degree courses being used in a single year.

In addition, six student-athletes were allowed to count courses for which they received grades of D, even though their majors required a C to count toward graduation.

Wow. Yet, UGA is the home of academic fraud because Jim Harrick, Jr. gave 3 basketball players an A in a PE course on basketball that NONE of them needed to remain eligible (and for which he was fired and UGA drastically penalized itself). Who's the fraud now, pencil necks? But, surely these GTU athletes weren't stars or anything....were they?


"Many of these student-athletes were prominent members of the team, including multiple-year starters who had received conference and national recognition for their athletic performances,” Marsh said.

The committee pointed out that allowing these student-athletes to compete without holding them to the same academic standards as their opponents gave Georgia Tech a substantial competitive advantage.

Hmmmm. "A substantial competitive advantage." For "prominent members of the team." Because they weren't being held to "the same academic standards as their opponents." Why...that sounds suspiciously like cheating to me, doesn't it? All this time, GTU people have sneered at UGA because of GTU's higher academic standards...and it was just a big fat lie. For shame, nerds.

But surely, once someone over there realized there was a problem, GTU's ever-so-ethical adminstration and staff cleaned it up and turned themselves in, right? I mean, if it was just a simple bookkeeping error, that's what an honest school would do, right? Turn itself in, fix the problem, take responsibility? Ummmmm. Not in this case, it seems.

The report also noted that the institution investigated the matter in 2003, but failed to uncover the full scope of the problem. It was only after an investigation by the NCAA enforcement staff that the full details of the case came to light.

Now, it's true that GTU offered some self-imposed penalties, about all of which were accepted by the NCAA. But, due to the seriousness and the scope of the lying and cheating, the NCAA added a few more to help serve the cause of justice. Here's the one that caught my eye...

The institution shall vacate the performance of its football team for all contests in which the 11 ineligible student-athletes competed.

Does that mean what I think it means? Is the 3 game anomalous GTU win streak of 98-00 now a 3 game losing streak within the 7 game losing streak before, and the (so far) 4 game losing streak which followed? Is UGA now going for FIFTEEN IN A ROW, BABY?!?!?!?!?!

This will indicate some justice to me if this means GTU has to cough up the tainted win in 99, at least. I'd like to see the looks on all the smug residents of the Urine Colored Nation as they realize, wow.....there really IS such a thing as "universal justice"...

Chew on that one, nerds. I cant wait for the official word on the football forfeits, but F(ifteen)IAR,B is sounding good to me.

Yours for more ethical academic oversight of renegade sports programs like GTU,

81Dog

Link: Et tu, Skipper?