Apparently the old “spoonful of sugar” line wasn’t a staple in Mal Moore’s childhood home.

The University of Alabama’s appeal of the 21-win penalty handed down by the NCAA in their textbook scandal case could be described as scathing.  Perhaps blistering.  Perhaps even vituperative if I’m using my thesaurus correctly.

In the 29-page appeal, Bama officials call the NCAA’s decision “arbitrary,” “irrational,” and an “Orwellian attempt to rewrite history.”

The document also says that the penalty was “so excessive as to constitute an abuse of discretion.”

While I might have toned down the language just a bit, the argument at the heart of the appeal is very sound.

UA compares the details of their textbook scandal to the details of other recent textbook violations at Ball State, Temple, Texas State and Weber State.  None of those schools were docked past football victories.

In other words, the NCAA had established a precedent only to ignore it when Alabama’s case came before the Committee on Infractions.

Tide fans will no doubt view this fiery appeal as a holy document… etched in stone by the flaming finger of Bear Bryant and handed down to Moore at The Capstone.

But those fans should remember that even though this document makes a logical argument, the NCAA tends to ignore logic quite often. 

So in the end, this appeal could wind up as nothing more than a simple case of very loud venting from UA officials and Crimson Tide fans.

If so, let it be written that at least Bama got their money’s worth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under Alabama, Homepage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.