Bo Ryan Helpfully Demonstrates the Hypocrisy of NCAA Sports

Bo Ryan is the head basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin. He's also apparently really good at holding a grudge, and in doing so he's showing just how silly, archaic and ridiculous a lot of NCAA rules are when it comes to the athletes.

Jarrod Uthoff was Mr. Basketball in the state of Iowa in 2011. He signed with Wisconsin and decided to redshirt his freshman year. After the season, Uthoff came to the realization that Wisconsin wasn't the best place for him, so he figured he'd transfer to a school that better suited him and his skills. 

Here's where it gets messed up. 

If another school wants to try to contact Uthoff in this situation, they have to get permission from Wisconsin first. Wisconsin can just say no if they feel like it. Part of that does make a little sense, because you don't want players jumping around from school to school in the same conference. I get that. But Bo Ryan decided that not only can Uthoff not go to any Big Ten school, which Wisconsin is part of, but he can't go to any ACC schools either.

Not only that, Ryan has also said that Uthoff can't go to Marquette, apparently because they're also in Wisconsin, and he also put Iowa State on Uthoff's banned list. 

Now why is this hypocritical, you may ask? Like I said, the idea of players just jumping from school to school in a conference would be problematic. Ryan, however, who is signed through the 2015-16 season, could decide he wants to coach somewhere else tomorrow and nobody could stop him. 

If the aforementioned Marquette decided they wanted to hire Ryan and he accepted, he could walk away from Wisconsin and start working tomorrow. There might be a buyout between the schools, but there's no NCAA rule preventing it from happening. There's nobody who could write up a list of schools that Ryan would be banned from.

When an athlete transfers, he or she has to sit out the following year. There are special circumstances where that's waived, but normally the athlete can't compete the season following a move. A coach on the other hand, can sign a ten-year extension one day, then change his mind the next and go someplace else. 

It's ridiculous, but it's all within NCAA rules. Doesn't make it any better though. Here's Uthoff in action.

Article by Eric Gray

via metrosportsreport.com