Dion Nesmith gets screwed by the NCAA

Lost in the talk of Cam Newton's eligibility and Enes Kanter's amatuerism is the plight of a young man who is actually a victim of circumstance and not the victim of the money floating around the game.

Dion Nesmith graduated high school in 2009 as a standout quarterback. He accepted a scholarship to Northeastern, where he redshirted his freshman season. But Northeastern had to close the doors on their football program after the season because of, well, a lack of money.

The NCAA afforded every player on Northeastern's roster the right to transfer to another school to play football immediately. There would be no mandatory redshirt season.


But Nesmith didn't want to risk transferring to another school only to see them lose their football program as well. He wasn't going to be transferring to Alabama or Oklahoma. Any school that Nesmith would have transferred to was going to be on the same level as Northeastern, a level where the financial crunch is hitting the athletics departments hard.

Nesmith, who was also a hoops star in high school, initially wanted to join the Northeastern basketball team, but seeing as their roster was full and all of their scholarships were being used, there was no place for him there. Nesmith opted to head to Monmouth University. He enrolled in June and began the process of trying to get himself eligible to play this season.

This should not surprise you in the least, but the NCAA has ruled against Nesmith. They have said that it was his decision to switch sports. He could have transferred to play football at any other school with no penalty, but since he decided he wanted to play basketball, his transfer will be looked at as optional.

Nesmith has to sit out a full season.

The ruling itself is bad enough. Nesmith has done absolutely nothing wrong. He had a program that he was playing for cut out from underneath him. In order to avoid that kind of disappointment again, Nesmith decided he did not want to play football anymore. But the basketball team at his current school didn't have space for him, so he transferred to a school he knew would have a spot.

It gets worse.

In 2009, when John Calipari took over the Kentucky program, he essentially kicked out Matt Pilgrim. He told Pilgrim that there wasn't a spot on the roster or a scholarship available. Pilgrim took his case to the NCAA, and he was allowed to transfer and become immediately eligible at Oklahoma State.

How is Nesmith's case any different?

Instead of a new coach coming into the school, it was his team getting dropped by the University. Both he and Pilgrim were left on the outside of the basketball team at their school looking in. I fail to see any significant difference here.

Then there is Cam Newton. Auburn's star quarterback is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and will be playing for the BCS national title. But when he was coming out of Junior College, is father essentially put his services up for sale. Auburn ruled him ineligible, but since the NCAA had no proof that Cam had any idea that his father was devising a pay-for-play scheme, they immediately restored his eligibility.

Nesmith certainly had to be aware that this was a possibility when he decided to go to Northeastern. But does the NCAA really want to set this precedent? Do they really want to punish a kid because the team he played for no longer exists?

Nesmith got screwed by his school.

The he got screwed by the NCAA.

As if you had any doubts as to why people hate the NCAA.