NCAA suspensions for improper benefits may feel like a thing of the past, given how quickly compensation rules have been liberalized in the wake of NIL’s legalization in the summer of 2021.
However, Indianapolis is still watching.
LSU defensive lineman Maason Smith found that out Thursday when he was suspended a game—the Tigers’ opener against Florida State on Sept. 3—for an autograph-related violation that predates the NIL era. Smith was set to return against the Seminoles after suffering a season-ending injury in the two teams’ season-opening meeting last year.
The suspension drew the ire of ESPN host Paul Finebaum, who excoriated the NCAA for its handling of the case.
With the Maason Smith case, the NCAA shows who they truly serve, no one. pic.twitter.com/FdDzEcewSk
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) August 25, 2023
“Maason Smith was at this signing one month before it was legal. If he’d done the signing the next month, they couldn’t have investigated it,” Finebaum said. “That’s where the NCAA—just use common sense. Say, ‘You know what, it may not technically be kosher here, but we’re going to show some fairness.’”
Finebaum recalled a seminar he sat through with NCAA leadership that left him disaffected, and then took aim at the organization’s governance.
“In the case of Maason Smith, they didn’t serve the student-athlete. This happened two years ago," Finebaum said. “That’s why people hate the NCAA, and quite frankly they are going to continue to whether they got a governor or shoe salesman in charge because they are completely bereft of leadership at that organization.”
