You may have missed it this weekend, but Cal went in front of the NCAA Committee on Infractions on Friday night.
Not Coach Cal, mind you. (If it was Coach Cal, you wouldn’t just be hearing and we wouldn’t just be writing about it.) California. The Golden Bears. Here’s the statement they released:
First of all, a kudos is in order.
We live in a day and age where news is broken and spread on twitter and writers everywhere are looking to expose the scandal that can make their career. Yet Cal committed violations, reported those violations, and face the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions and the news didn’t leak out until the day after their meeting?
Seriously. Mike Montgomery and the Cal coaching staff met with the committee on Friday night, and Jeff Goodman of FOXSports penned the first article (at least the first one that I saw) on Saturday afternoon that already included a statement from the school. Whether this is a result of the Cal athletic department being able to keep such matters close or a sign of the basketball team’s relevance, or lack thereof, nationally can be debated. Regardless of the answer, however, it is odd how this thing played out.
As far as Cal goes, if what they are claiming in their statement is accurate -- that the violations were unintentional -- their punishment from the NCAA should be minimal, if anything. These things happen, and while the phone call rules may be fairly clear, enforcing them can get a bit tricky, as Gary Parrish explained back in September:
Not all NCAA violations are equal, and seeing as we didn’t hear anything about it until after the hearing took place, I think we can assume that Cal is in the clear with the NCAA.
Their basketball team?
Well, that’s a different story. They just lost at home to Southern Miss.