I have a problem with revisionism.
Revisionism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “advocacy of revision (as of doctrine or policy or historical analysis)”. Reexamination is one thing. Reinterpretation is one thing. Revision, as in changing and altering to procure a “better” final product, in the case of most anything outside of your term paper or Odyssey article, is wrong.
And especially wrong when it comes to established fact, such as the 2013 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship.
Yes, that’s right, I’m up in arms over college basketball. March Madness is right around the corner. ‘Tis the season.
When the NCAA upheld its previous ruling this week, many voices both inside and outside the ‘Ville were agitated, to say the least. The NCAA’s appeals committee ruled that the University of Louisville men’s basketball team will have to vacate all wins achieved between the 2011-2012 and 2014-15 academic years, including a Final Four appearance in 2012 and, most notably, its 2013 championship win.
The decision was decried by many sports pundits as well as recently fired former Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino, who called the ruling “unjust”.
Despite the transgressions that seem all but certain to have occurred in the last few seasons at Louisville, I find it difficult to revise history to the extent that a champion is no longer a champion.
Those transgressions, specifically speaking, stem from reports that an assistant at Louisville, Andre McGee, paid some $10,000 to supply basketball recruits with strippers and escorts at private parties, some held on the University of Louisville campus. Some of the recruits in question were reportedly under the age of 18 at the time of the parties.
While wild sex parties are hardly something wholly upright or squeaky clean, I’m not entirely sure they should require the forfeit of some four years of fantastic basketball. As Pitino argued, it’s not as if titillation is some sort of performance-enhancer. What his players earned on the court is what they earned.
I don’t deny that the NCAA is within their rights to punish the University of Louisville. Whether or not the collegiate sports titan’s rules on not paying or enticing players in any way shape or form is something you agree with, clearly Louisville broke that rule. They transgressed, and I don’t deny there should be some repercussion for that.
Still, shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime?
After all, other schools have slipped up before. Whether it was the sale of cocaine and cars to players on the Oklahoma football team in 1989 or the University of Kentucky players taking bribes to shave points in 1951, Louisville is hardly the first college to behave badly. And yet, all other championship banners still hang in place.
While the NCAA does reserve the right to take virtually any punitive measure it sees fit (up to and including suspending a school’s program in a given sport, the so-called “death penalty”) it has been reluctant to revoke championships in the past. This is the first instance of a revoked title in college basketball, with the only true equivalent being the removal of USC’s 2004 football championship following investigations into improper gifts given to Trojans running back Reggie Bush.
But in neither case do I see the reasoning for this revisionism.
Certainly, there should be a reconsideration of these teams. Of what they did and how they did it. And I hardly think that either Louisville 2013 or USC 2004 should be held up as shining, moral examples. Still, saying a game didn’t happen, doesn’t mean the game didn’t happen. Plenty of people watched the Final Four in 2013, just as they have throughout the history of the March Madness tournament. Louisville beat Michigan that year. At least, they did in everyone’s minds except for the NCAA’s.
Punish Louisville. By all means, punish the Cardinals. I think they (and the world) have gotten the message in regard to what they can and can’t do. But don’t rewrite history.
82-76. That was the final score of the 2013 NCAA men’s national basketball championship. Louisville wins. That’s not my opinion. That’s empirical fact.
