The NCAA has its hands full when it comes to dealing with schools breaking the rules.
Violations such as paying players and academic fraud seem to be the biggest, resulting in postseason bans and severe reductions of scholarships. Others violations, such as players and/or their families receiving free or discounted housing and employment or perks such as a trip on the team charter, can cause headaches for a school.
But one has to wonder if the NCAA has its priorities misplaced when The Associated Press, after an open records request, said the University of South Carolina reported 22 NCAA infractions in the past year. Seven committed by the football program and all of them were deemed secondary.
What were some of the violations?
How about "impermissible iced decorations on a cookie cake given to prospects," and another when the team laid out trophies and jerseys on a table inside the locker room, which is against NCAA rules since trophies aren't generally in the locker room.
Another violation took place when a prospect attended spring practice and took a picture with a former Gamecock in the NFL. NCAA rules state the coaching staff should not have allowed the prospective player to interact with the former Gamecock.
Also, a prospect wore a nonpersonalized jersey onto the South Carolina football field to take a picture and posted it on Twitter to announce his commitment to the Gamecocks, which broke SEC rules.
The most severe? How about a July 2013 case where a football assistant coach wrongly texted a junior prospect. The coach was prevented from calling any prospect for two weeks and the entire coaching staff was not allowed to call the prospect for 60 days.
Take that!
San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence took a lot of grief from New York Mets fans over the weekend at Citi Field.
Pence was greeted with several signs held by fans:
• "Hunter Pence whispers sorry when he catches a fly ball."
• "Hunter Pence brings 13 items to the Express Lane."
• "Hunter Pence eats pizza with a fork."
• "Hunter Pence can't parallel park."
Whatever the motivation Mets fans had for taunting Pence, it didn't work. In Sunday's 9-0 victory over the Mets, he went 3 for 5 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI. In the Giants' 4-3 victory Monday, he went 2 for 5 with a double and a triple and scored 2 runs.
Headlines
From the satirical website Fark.com
• "In an attempt to keep Brett Favre retired, the Packers are retiring his jersey."
• "MLB pitchers take nearly 100 years to reach the 1 millionth strikeout in 1976, but just 38 years more to reach 2 million. Thanks for doing your part, Chris Davis."
Sports quiz
What is Steve Spurrier's record at South Carolina?
Answer
77-39
Sports on 08/05/2014