In looking at the Eric Bledsoe situation, my first thought is “didn’t they expose him to an in-depth exam BEFORE they cleared him the first time?” Yes…yes they did. I remember this time last year when both Bledsoe and Wall were being reviewed by the NCAA, and I was relieved when Bledsoe was finally cleared of his ‘more in-depth’ version of the clearinghouse. First, the NCAA has checks that ALL incoming recruits must pass. Second, as we learned last year, some recruits get the more ‘in-depth’ review that Bledsoe received. Evidently there is a third review available to the NCAA (kind of like ‘double-secret probation’ from the movie [I]Animal House[/I]). Did you know they could do that? Yeah, me neither.
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Do all schools face this kind of scrutiny? Well, yes and no. Other schools do face scrutiny with their recruits, as we see playing out in the Josh Selby and Will Barton sagas, but not to the level UK and Cal do. Selby is being investigated for his relationship with agent/manager Robert Frazier and is still under investigation at this time. Barton was declared academically ineligible but then (wait for it…) the NCAA [I]reversed[/I] its decision and he is now eligible to play at Memphis. Do you think the NCAA would have reversed its decision [I]in favor of[/I] a recruit if Cal were still there? Yeah, me neither. How about Selby? If Selby is declared eligible to play (as I’m sure he will be, it is Kansas after all), I guarantee neither he nor Barton will be subject to any more investigations. I guarantee it.
Still not convinced there is a bias? Don’t even get me started on why John Wall had to sit out the first few games of last year’s season because of his relationship with coach Brian Clifton but Duke commit Ryan Kelly (who had the same coach) was not punished in any way. I know, I know, the Dookies say “it’s different, Clifton was not trying to steer Kelly to Duke or jockeying to be his agent when he went pro.” Seriously? Come on people, with the NCAA you are guilty by association, and they were both associating. And Kansas recruit Darrell Arthur had similar academic issues as Bledsoe, but their season (the 2008 National Championship one) was not vacated because “Kansas did nothing to change Arthur’s grades, and Arthur was cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse to play Division 1 basketball”. What? Do you think that will fly for Kentucky too? Yeah, me neither.
