So, last month, word spread from a report that the men's basketball program at New Mexico State has halted its season and cancelled their game against Cal Baptist, while their coaching staff was put on paid administrative leave due to allegations of multiple players being involved in hazing attacks.
This program has already seen trouble towards the end of 2022, when forward Mike Peake was involved in a shooting that killed 19-year-old University of New Mexico student, Brandon Travis. Peake was suspended indefinitely, but was not charged with a crime.
Here's the huge elephant in the room (sorry, elephant), the NCAA tries to be the judge, jury, and executioner.....and they do a terrible job at all three. After this shooting, they should have stepped in and threw the book at them, knowing that there was probably more trouble within the program. Low and behold, there were shenanigans happening within the program. The hazing allegations were graphic enough for at least, a two year ban. I realize that an investigation is still going on, but if a school continues to (bleep) up, then you have to step in.
This is the inconceivable truth, the NCAA is afraid to impose their version of the "death penalty" on institutions. The one known program who has received this punishment, SMU football in the 1980's, is still trying to recover from the aftermath of the sanctions handed down almost 40 years later. However, some programs deserve this punishment. Take for instance, Penn State with the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Joe Paterno had a sexual predator on his staff for decades and kept it under wraps. Once, the NCAA found out, that's when they should have dropped the hammer and imposed the "death penalty." Nope, they didn't. With the Baylor basketball program and the Patrick Dennehy murder and later, with the Baylor football program and the sexual assault allegations under coach Art Briles. This is when the NCAA should have been the judge, jury and executioner. Again, they didn't execute anything. Even recently, when a former University of Alabama basketball player, Darius Miles, committed capital murder, that's right, CAPITAL murder, is when the NCAA should have sanctioned the hell out of the program. Once again, nope. It's becoming a recurring theme. These institutions are, literally, getting away with murder.
So, the fallout is that head coach Greg Heiar's contract was terminated and the director of athletics, Mario Moccia, should be gone, too. It's going to take a while for the program to recover from this. A new head coach will come in and try to clean up the mess that NMSU created.
Alas, the NCAA continues to miss the boat.
(Sources: KTSM 9 News, SI, ESPN, Las Cruces Sun-News, Fox Sports, Go.com)
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