TCU’s light bulb scandal is as funny as the NCAA’s ‘punishment’ for it
The question has often been asked: How many football players does it take to screw in a light bulb? And TCU bravely sought to find the exact answer through its own athletic department.
What we learned is that not just football players can do the job. Men’s and women’s basketball players are required to help to complete the arduous task.
The answer is 33.
On Friday, just in time for Christmas, TCU was put on NCAA probation after it self-reported that 33 student-athletes were paid for work they did not do in on-campus jobs at the university’s physical plant.
You know you’ve hit the big time when the women’s basketball team gets busted.
In what has been a brilliant decade for the TCU athletic department, its last big achievement is NCAA probation.
Their respective players’ task was to change light bulbs across campus. Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech, Merry Christmas; you all now have a talking point to skewer your rival for the next decade.
Members of the physical plant team said these sorts of “jobs” had been going on for years. Sources said the employees didn’t know the specifics, other than the kids would appear and “really didn’t do work.”
This is simply practical life skills and preparing kids for life after college: Figure out a way to get paid for no work.
This is all equally embarrassing for TCU, and for the NCAA.
A. TCU’s physical plant managers should never have allowed this to happen. If you’re going to give a student-athlete a fake job so he can make a little extra cash, be sure to have the guy clock out. Or have the presence of mind to record the hours of “work” in a log book.
The kids weren’t clocking out.
B. Someone in the athletic administration, or respective coaching staffs, should have been on top of this years ago. This was a TCU physical plant error, but you will notice the TCU physical plant isn’t going on NCAA probation.
C. The NCAA is throwing out penalties on this because TCU is a small player in their hierarchy of member schools. If this infraction were by Duke men’s basketball, there would be neither a penalty nor an investigation.
TCU relieved at NCAA announcement
According to the NCAA’s report, when TCU athletic department officials learned of the potential infractions, it reported the violations to the NCAA.
The NCAA would be unaware of a sunrise if someone else didn’t inform the governing body. Either the member institution self-reports, a rival schools rats them out, or the media exposes the violation.
TCU and the NCAA went back and forth on this for nearly a year and a half. The NCAA informed TCU it would deliver the school a ruling before noon Friday.
Department officials were concerned the NCAA might just make an example of TCU and impose a harsh penalty.
Student athletes were getting paid, albeit a minimal amount, which is a major NCAA sin. But the small amount the players were receiving for not working amounted to a few hundred bucks.
Per sources, the players who were hired were mostly lower-income kids. The type of kid who needs the cash and may send it home. Or spend it on beer or video games. There are needs, and then there are priorities.
The small amount of money the players made could explain why the football team hasn’t fared too well the past few years. If these light bulb relocation engineers were paid a bit more for their services, the football team might land some better players.
Despite the minor infraction, TCU’s fear is valid. The NCAA is renowned for swinging a heavy sword of justice at schools that are not high profile.
You will notice the University of North Carolina avoided any NCAA penalty despite years worth of evidence that many of its student-athletes participated in academic fraud.
Basically, TCU must pay a $50K fine and not get into any NCAA trouble for a year.
The NCAA flexes its muscles
The NCAA’s tap on TCU’s nose provides more comedy material for all sports journalists who watch this governing institution act like Halloween cops dressed in expensive suits.
The NCAA opened its case against Baylor University for a variety of reasons in June 2017. We’re almost in 2020, and that case has still not been settled.
The FBI wiretaps that exposed myriad potential NCAA violations in high-profile men’s basketball programs began in February 2018. No program has been formally penalized yet.
The NCAA has more important items on its agenda, but the TCU case managed to be completed first.
TCU’s infractions were graded Level II, which fits the crime.
The penalties are minimal because the infractions are laughable.
At least a new slogan came out of it: “TCU — We’ll keep the light on for you.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2019 at 7:23 PM with the headline "TCU’s light bulb scandal is as funny as the NCAA’s ‘punishment’ for it."
