NCAA makes right call — but only after public outcry

Is it more amazing that the NCAA did right by one of its flock or that it took the comma parsers at headquarters in Indianapolis a week to awaken to it?

Either way, for once they set down the telephone book-sized operating manual and let common sense be their guide.

Of course, when it came to recently retired 24-year-old U.S. Marine sergeant turned Middle Tennessee State football player Steven Rhodes, mounting public opinion probably helped the NCAA see the light.

What the NCAA couldn’t originally discover through reason was apparently eventually illuminated by the tsunami of social media reaction.

Last week the NCAA stood firm on what we are told is bylaw 14.2.3.2.1 in saying that Rhodes would be required to give up two years of eligibility, one for each season of "organized competition" in the military that crossed the academic calendar. Maybe 12 games in all spread across 2011 and ’12.

Never mind that it was basically loosely organized recreation league football at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego, Calif., where Rhodes was a tight end and defensive end. Hardly a hotbed of major college recruiting or a budding pipeline to the pros.

But that somebody kept score, there were officials and uniforms, that was all the NCAA needed to hear. Manual slammed shut. Case closed.

Coaches might break rules and wander from campus to campus for better paying jobs. Players may rack up arrests or fail a drug test or two and play on into the postseason.

But heaven help the purity of college football if an air traffic controller catches some passes against guys from the motor pool or sacks a cook on weekends.

Rhodes might have had to watch his hometown football team from the stands at Johnny Red Floyd Stadium this fall except MTSU and an outraged public wouldn’t let go. And the NCAA, which has stumbled from one embarrassing situation to another this year, was compelled to take stock.

MTSU persisted on behalf of the father of two who had given five years of service to his country. It even pointed out to the NCAA that there had been a rule exempting active duty military from the bylaw at one time but that NCAA legal eagles had plowed it under during periodic rule revisions and never bothered to resurrect it.

Then late Monday, after a weekend of scorching public and media rebuttal, the NCAA announced, "as part of its continued review of Steven Rhodes’ eligibility, NCAA staff determined he may play immediately. Additionally, he will maintain all four years of his eligibility."

Moreover, the NCAA pledged that it "will examine the organized competition rules, especially as it impacts those returning from military service."

It remains to be seen how many games the Blue Raiders might go on to win with their 6-foot, 3-inch, 240-pound walk-on. But forcing the NCAA to examine its conscience and review its ponderous manual is a victory that transcends Murfeesboro, Tenn.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com. or 529-4820.