Way to really stick it to us, NCAA
If there was ever a clear indication about how toothless the NCAA is, it's got to be this.
Monday, Syracuse.com confirmed that of the 101 wins Syracuse Orange basketball must vacate due to violations, that includes every win in the 2005-06 and 2011-12 seasons. Those were pretty good seasons, as you might remember. In 2006, Syracuse won the Big East Tournament championship and Jim Boeheim gave us the gift that keeps on giving. In 2012, Syracuse advanced to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.
So the NCAA now says that, officially, none of that exists. Except...
in a bizarre twist, the NCAA's sanctions did not include the removal of any trophies or banners.
That means while Syracuse's official record for the 2005-06 season will go down as 0-7, Syracuse can keep its Big East Tournament trophy and continue to display a Big East Tournament champion banner at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center.
The NCAA is basically punishing Syracuse in the eyes of future generations who will scour the record books and find out SU went 0-12 in 2005-2006. Okay.
So other than that, nothing changes. Syracuse will continue to hang the banner for all of the NCAA Tournament appearances in the involved years and they'll keep their BET trophies as well. The Big East Conference will also continue to denote Syracuse as the winner of it's 2005 and 2006 conference championships.
All of which is to say that we now find ourselves in the annoying position of celebrating upcoming win milestones that won't be officially recognized by the NCAA, but other than that, nothing changes. Oh and the current SU basketball team is recruited to the gills and as deep as it's ever been.
Good job, good effort, NCAA.
