I’m not a Notre Dame fan. Frankly I root against them most of the time, so this isn’t a take from a rabid fan who can’t be impartial.

The NCAA has caught Notre Dame in an academic scandal, and has decided that the Fighting Irish will have to vacate wins over several seasons.

This punishment is idiotic. It punishes all of the players who didn’t do anything wrong. It distorts actual results on the field, and just proves again that the NCAA is out of touch.

Of course Notre Dame needs to be punished. Like North Carolina, we see that many of these universities let academics get out of control. You have to wonder how many of these kids are getting a real education, and the NCAA needs to do something about this.

But vacating wins is not the appropriate punishment. Instead, we should hot these universities with a huge fine, force them to have independent oversight over their academic programs for athletes, and then also use some of the fine money for a program to help student athletes who end up leaving school without a degree. Many of these kids are just pushed through the system to help the school win on Saturdays, and then end up leaving school without a degree. It’s never too late to help them finish their education, even if their football days are over.