The NCAA Is Becoming More and More Absurd

UConn starts their season today against Bryant University, but guard Rodney Purvis won't be taking the court for the Huskies. The sophomore has been given a one-game suspension by the NCAA for, get this, playing in more than one summer league.

Since the NCAA lives to rule every waking moment of its college athletes, somewhere in their bylaws, it says that basketball players can only participate in one league during the off-season. So, Purvis' appearance in just one game in a second summer league had to be punished. An eye for an eye, a game for a game is how the NCAA is choosing to handle this most severe transgression by one of its living ATMs.

The NCAA's nit-picky rules and their reasoning for the suspensions that follow have become more and more bizarre. No surprises then when you hear coaches and players say that they don't even know when they're breaking a rule anymore. It's like trying to understand the tax code. Or quantum mechanics. Example: a coach giving a ride to players for an off-campus practice is a suspension-worthy "impermissible benefit." And the NCAA has made a habit of laying bare its absurd logic and high-headedness in these matters. It's best exemplified by the Todd Gurley situation, in which the NCAA, with a straight face, decided that it's an actual court of justice. Besides suspending Gurley for fours games, the NCAA booked him for 40 hours of community service because, hey, maybe if they pull this stunt off enough times, people will forget that they're not actually a court of law.

As the college basketball season rolls on, there will no doubt be many more suspension gems, just as there have been in the past—for everything from athletes accepting free groceries to accepting money for groceries. Hell, even accepting free pizza can be a violation. Somehow, it's only getting worse.

Mitch McGary's suspension this year was one of the most disproportionate violation versus punishment situations. After testing positive for marijuana in his first failed drug test, when he hadn't even been playing for four months, the NCAA chose to ban the then Michigan center from all competition for one year. That's the kind of punishment athletes like A-Rod and Metta World Peace, both with multi-million dollar salaries, get for cheating drug tests and punching people.

In 2012, amid speculations of criminal behavior, nobody knew why Kansas State's Jamar Samuel was suspended for a game. It was later revealed that his crime was borrowing $200 from his former coach because he had run out of food money. A year before that, Baylor's Perry Jones was suspended for six games because the NCAA figured out that his mother had received a loan towards mortgage payments from one of Jones' former coaches. Jones had no clue about the loan.

Even receiving a second-hand mattress and some box springs for your dorm room can result in lengthy suspensions, as University of Las Vegas basketball freshman Chris Richardson figured out when his coach lent him one. As for shoes? Oh, you definitely don't want to mess with shoes if you're a NCAA athlete. In one of the most hilarious and high-profile mass suspensions, the NCAA decided that 26 Wisconsin football players had to be suspended for receiving shoe discounts that hadn't been advertised to the general public.

And then there are the times when the NCAA chooses to look the other way: Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor and four of his teammates were serving five-game suspensions in 2011. They'd been found selling jerseys, championship rings, and trophies to a local tattoo parlor. The NCAA still allowed them to suit up for the Sugar Bowl. Explaining why would require an assumption that the NCAA's decision making is guided by something other than whimsical interpretations of its own regulations. That would be an awfully dumb assumption.