Originally Posted by Clonehomer 
From November 28th's press release:
Pollard added. “Our only remaining option is to appeal Lucca’s case to the NCAA Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which is comprised of other administrators from peer institutions. We hope that our peers will share our belief that the right thing to do is set aside precedent and restore Lucca’s eligibility for the remainder of the year.”
I guess this isn't the NCAA exactly. Maybe I'm being naive or overly optimistic but it I think Lucca will have a better shot with this group than the group that suspended him in the first place. You don't want to overturn your own decisions, but this group didn't make that first decision.
Outside of this incident, the NCAA has other image issues that are starting to cause problems for them...one being that the NCAA should lose their non-profit status because they've become an organization that is more concerned about making money than the integrity of college athletics.
I think this stand that the NCAA has taken on Lucca (along with adopting the rule that caused the ruling) is part of their attempt to work on changing the perception that the NCAA has lost focus on the integrity of college athletics.
And I know, before I get yelled at, that there are a
plethora of other things the NCAA could do to fix their "integrity" image besides dogging Lucca (like a genuine investigation into Reggie Bush/USC, how players in other sports seem to be able to retain amateur status after getting paid to play, etc.), but the Lucca thing is
current, it's an
easy matter (relative to taking on something like Reggie/USC), and the NCAA can say, "Look we may not have done a good job in the past on integrity issues, but we're cracking down now."
If you are some causual observer who knows little about the facts of the Lucca case, (i.e. the people in Congress who have been on the NCAA's case lately), this could look like another issue of some guy who played on a pro team now trying to sneak in and play college ball. It's not until you get into the facts of the case that you see otherwise. Outside of
ISU fans and sports writers who study this for a living, how many people are going to dig into the case?
Although I think it would be just for the appeals committee to rule in Lucca's favor, I would be pleasntly surprised if they actually did, because it could be construed to undercut the "Look, we're cracking down now and working hard on our problems" image that the NCAA as a whole needs to work on.
But who knows...
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