S-E-C the Violations Piling Up

Now, I'm all for a loud off season, but not this way. In the wake of UGA's athletic director losing his job over a drunk driving charge (amongst other things), two UGA players face similar charges, and half a dozen Vol players got themselves in an old fashioned bar brawl. While no punishments have made been made public in the UGA case, one Vol has been dismissed, two more are suspended indefinitely, and law-trained Coach Dooley may not be finished yet. Those consequences don't include the scrutiny the NCAA might apply to the infamous Bar Knoxville, whose owners boneheadedly decided to announce athletes are given preferential treatment.

This latter point could get interesting. Bar Knoxville admits football and basketball palyers are not required to pay a cover charge. I've been through compliance training, and accepting such an offer is a definite no-no. But are the players aware they're being comped due to their team association? After all, even Average Joe regulars are comped, in which case, despite the bar owner's statements, that wouldn't be special privilege. Strong arguments can be made on both sides.

If anything does come of this, I guarantee there will be howling on Rocky Top about the unfairness of punishing the university for the actions of a privately owned business. To some extent, they're right. But, if the players have gone through compliance training (and I don't know when the players have it), it is their responsibility to ensure they're staying on the up and up.

Unfortunately, the types of underage athletes who put themselves in seedy bars at two o'clock in the morning are probabbly the least capable of monitoring themselves.