NCAA Penalizes 75 Schools - meanwhile the swimmers got crushed at Ohio Univ.

Talking NCAA sports and academic progress.

TEXAS SWIMMING: NCAA Penalizes 75 Schools 112 teams at 75 colleges failed to meet the Academic Progress Rate requirements.

81 of those 112 teams face scholarship cuts.

49 teams have received warning letters for failure to meet academic standards for three (3) consecutive years.

44% of men's basketball teams face sanctions next year.

40% of football teams face sanctions next year.

35% of baseball teams face sanctions next year.

67% of the teams facing penalties are men's basketball, football, or baseball teams.

Ready for the swimming numbers? Only one school in the country (Florida A&M) was cited for poor academic performance in swimming.

So here it is in a nutshell:

We pump all kinds of money into football, basketball, and baseball only to see these sports at the top of the 'Dumbass' category.

We cut sports like swimming that rarely get into academic trouble. We are near the top in academics but are told we shouldn't exist.

What a screwed up world it's become....

The Ohio University Men's Swim Team was cut. They swam this year. The team won't be around next year. This is still a bad decision and makes me sad.

But there is more. The guys on the squad were able to transfer to other NCAA schools. However, the NCAA rules of making annual academic progress were hard, if not impossible, for some of the student athletes because Ohio University is on an academic calendar that has QUARTERS and most other universities have SEMESTERS. The quarter hours don't always transfer into another system so as to meet the 'academic benchmarks' that the NCAA rules require. More dumb rules.

So, lots of the swimmers lost their team to no fault of their own. And, when forced to transfer to another school to continue to study and swim -- they lost a year of eligibility and opportunity.

Any athlete that is in a program that gets cut (because of Title IX) should be able to be eligible for a transfer for the next season without hardship on the athlete. The athlete should be given a free pass to play anywhere that will have him or her -- for the next year -- without worry about grades and academic progress.