NCAA Should Have Loosened Rules for Boise State

Back in July a terrible tragedy struck a family out in Hemet, California. 18-year old Emil Smith and one of his friends were hit head on and killed in a two car collision. Smith played linebacker and was going into his senior year of high school. He had already verbally committed to play at Boise State next fall but could not sign a letter of intent until signing day in February.

I was not aware of the outrageous part of this story until it was brought to my attention yesterday courtesy of the Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio. The next bit of information was heard directly from Van Pelt's program.

Because of NCAA bylaws, Boise State could do nothing to reach out to Smith's family. They could not call. They could not send flowers. They could not attend the funeral. They could not even mention the recruit by his name because of NCAA rules. These rules point to illegal contact and such, rules that obviously are not meant for a recruit that dies.

I would not fault Boise State for not doing performing any of these gestures. The great coaching staff in Boise surely wanted to call, or attend the funeral, or send flowers. The organization to fault for this, which we should not be surprised by, is the NCAA.

The NCAA should have called Boise's coaching staff or Athletic Director and told them that in this instance, the rule could be bent. In this instance, go ahead and call the grieving parents. In this instance, send flowers to the family. And in this one instance, go ahead, take your staff, take your team if you want to, and attend the young man's funeral out in California. It doesn't seem like that difficult of a concept to put into action.

What did the NCAA do? Well, nothing, of course. The NCAA simply sat there and let the rules stay the same. Don't worry about the family of the son who had just committed four years of his life to the men in Boise. Don't worry about the mother who had given her trust to the men in Boise to take care of her son and look out for what's best for him, football or otherwise, for the next four years. They don't matter. The NCAA has laws to stick to, and by God, they are going to stick to them whether we like it or not.

There is not much that the NCAA does nowadays that doesn't anger many collegiate athletic fans. This was a chance for the NCAA to finally do something right. A chance to even look good in the public for doing something so simple it would be callous not to do so. But this is the NCAA we are talking about. And as in most cases, the NCAA got it wrong...again.