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From the Harry Potter glory days to NCAA purgatory, it’s been a precipitous fall from grace for the Hogwarts Academy Quidditch team.
Once the undisputed top Quidditch program in the world, Hogwarts is now facing unprecedented sanctions that threaten not only the long-term health of the Quidditch team, but Hogwarts as an institution.
As most people are well aware, the NCAA recently announced Hogwarts would be banned for six years from all athletic competition as a result of more than 700 rules violations.
Emerald colleague and ace investigative reporter Robert Husseman broke this massive story in today’s Emerald, and a full summary of the case can be found in his account.
To summarize: Millions of dollars in illegal benefits changed hands, rule breaking was covered up and there was a general culture of non-compliance. It’s fair to say Hogwarts did, in fact, suffer from a lack of institutional control of the highest degree.
I think we can all agree that in the realm of amateur athletics, the actions of Hogwarts administrators and boosters were unacceptable.
But once again, the NCAA missed the boat on enforcement.
In fairness, I’ll admit the NCAA is in a tough spot these days. Many of its member schools have taken to deviant behavior.
There’s Tresselgate at Ohio State, Cam Newton and pay-for-play allegations at Auburn, controversy with recruiting services at Oregon and possibly LSU, and even allegations of systematic steroid usage at elite European rugby power Lyles University.
(While not denying the possibility of substance abuse, rugby players at Lyles denied “knowingly using” performance enhancing drugs when contacted by the Emerald. Look for a more complete investigation of drug use at Lyles in the next edition of the Emerald.)
The NCAA has been hammered by pundits for its inconsistent rulings and lack of action in many of the aforementioned cases. When it came time to rule on the Hogwarts case, the NCAA clearly felt the need to make a statement. NCAA president Mark Emmert may deny it, but that’s the only feasible explanation for such excessive punishment.
And frankly, making a statement is all a six-year ban will accomplish. It doesn’t affect Harry Potter, now happily married and wealthy and the recipient of many illegal benefits, nor does it punish Potter’s former ‘street agent’ J.K. Rowling.
Rowling, who received an estimated $1.25 million in various operations connected to Potter, is the owner of a small, but profitable, chain of British coffee shops. She was forced to leave the street agent industry after condemning her fellow street agents as “money-grubbing whore muggles.” (That statement got Rowling kicked out of the “Super Super Secret Street Agent Alliance, or SSSSA. The SSSSA certifies street agents and allows them to conduct business and profit off the naivety of student-athletes.)
Instead, the ruling will affect the next generation of promising Hogwarts Quidditch players, many of whom are now left without an outlet to display their considerable athletic skill. Some will find other schools where they can continue their Quidditch careers, but others will be out of luck, stuck at Hogwarts.
Further, we saw the devastation that the “death penalty” can cause on a college campus when it was last assessed to Southern Methodist University in 1987.
Hogwarts has long been considered the top wizard institution in all of Europe, known in the U.S. as the “Harvard of 11-to-18-year-old wizard institutions in remote locations in England that are only accessible by flying car or hidden trains with good Quidditch teams,” so to speak. Without a Quidditch program to increase the school’s visibility and pump revenue into academic programs, there’s a real possibility Hogwarts takes several steps backwards as an academic institution.
Why punish well-intentioned young wizards for the sins of a few power-hungry people? It doesn’t make sense.
We can only hope the NCAA gives Hogwarts a fair shake in the school’s appeal and re-thinks its six-year ban.
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Drukarev: NCAA making an example of Hogwarts
Daily Emerald
March 30, 2011