Oklahoma Football Gets Smacked With Huge Penalty [David Stefanini]

The Oklahoma Sooners have to erase all the wins from the record books from the 2005 season. In addition, they will be losing out on 4 scholarships from the 2008-2010 football seasons. The team was already on probation, but now the probation will last longer, into the 2010 season.

These punishments are being handed down to the Sooners because of 2 players, Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn, who received money for work they did not perform at a local car dealership. In addition to these accusations, another player was found to be given money for playing in a scrimmage and a pre-season game. In other words, the player, Jermaine Hardison, did not want to participate in meaningless football games. Someone felt he needed these games to help him prepare for the season and offered to pay him if he played. Hardison accepted the offer and is now the Sooners are facing the consequences.

What I do not understand is, why is Oklahoma being penalized for this? When Oklahoma first heard of what was going on, they dismissed Quinn and Bomar from the team, for accepting money for work they did not do. I strongly feel that Oklahoma acted properly by kicking these kids off the football team. Why should they be penalized for upholding the rules the NCAA put into place? What these players did was wrong, but the Sooners should not have to pay for the mistakes of these two kids.