Vacated Wins Are F'ing Confusing
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Post is now up here.
Now, the distinction between a vacated win and a forfeit is something of a metaphysical NCAA mystery. Alabama doesn't win games, but their opponent doesn't either. What a mess. Only an NCAA rule would even allow a vacated win category to exist. It's like the games never happened at all for one side? How does this make any sense at all? As a result every school will have a lopsided record book with Alabama, the opponent counts the loss on their books but Alabama can't count the win.
Ultimately though, fans and players die, records don't. That's why, if you're an intelligent college football fan, you should care about wins being vacated. Even if vacated wins are a weird NCAA construction. In fact, and I may be in the minority on this, I'd rather give up a few scholarships in the future than have to give up the wins my team actually garnered on the field.
Some other things to ponder as the probation dust settles:
Who Actually Won the Florida State-Alabama game in 2007?
On the field, Florida State won 21-14 on Sept. 27, 2007, but now Florida State is supposed to vacate this win. So Alabama lost this game but Florida State didn't win it. Imagine the metaphysical mystery of this game if Florida State was forced to forfeit. Then they'd try to give the win to Alabama but Alabama couldn't take it. Seriously, vacating wins makes my head spin.
Legal Issue: Coaching Contracts and Wins Clauses
What happens if a coach isn't implicated in any wrongdoing, but his wins are stripped and as a result his contract hits a snag when it comes to negotiating a required pay increase tied to wins? Can you retroactively take back the pay increase? Has litigation like this ever ensued? What about when it sets off a triggering mechanism in other coaching contracts? Like if a coach's contract requires him to be among the top three highest paid coaches and someone passes him with a record that later gets vacated? Can you imagine the legal complexities since so many coaching contracts are intertwined now? It makes my head swim just thinking about it.
No One Wins?
On the vacating of wins, only the NCAA would design a system where teams can manage to lose a game that no one wins. That's what happens for anyone who lost to Alabama during this time frame. According to the NCAA:
To record vacancies for regular season contests, the wins but not the losses of the penalized team are dropped from its overall record. This affects season records, all-time records and coaches' records. ... All records that are changed should be asterisked with the footnote stating something to the effect of "Later vacated by NCAA action."
The won-lost records for each of the opposing teams are not changed when games are vacated.
So doesn't this change the record books for the teams and put them on two different tracks in the series history? Yep. For instance, Tennessee gives Alabama credit for a win that Alabama can't claim? And maybe two wins. So Tennessee has the series record all-time as Alabama with one or two more wins than Alabama has themselves having. How does this make any sense at all? It's like being a little bit pregnant. Somewhere Mike Shula is kicking things. As if his era of Alabama football didn't look bad already, they are taking away some of his wins. From his best year as a coach? Ouch.
Fortunately the NCAA offers this helpful note:
It is suggested schools and conferences denote such games by using an asterisk and a footnote, but continue to list the actual contest results.
Crystal clear.
Repeat Offenders
This puts Alabama in the system for five years as an NCAA violator. Meaning any additional penalties they might face would be looked at even more stringently. This is perhaps the most lasting danger to the Crimson Tide. Maybe by then the NCAA website will stand up to the site traffic. Labels: alabama vacates wins
Posted by Clay Travis at 5:47 PM
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