Enough Is More Than Enough

There are somethings that are more important than anything, the number one thing that comes to mind after that statement is Life. But not to the NCAA, sometimes you have rules and I'm all for the whole "rules are meant to be followed", but I am also a firm believer that in many cases that rules are meant to be broken. but again leave it to the NCAA to make themselves bigger than even life itself.

The NCAA has a rule that allows them to regulate how much contact a member school can have with a prospective student athlete and their families, but in this situation it shows a flaw in a rule that clearly needs to be changed. 

Emil Smith was a Boise State football recruit that passed away in a car accident on July 18th in Hermet, California. His brother Dimitri Garcia, 22, was the driver of the vehicle. He also died from the accident.

Smith was the star football player of the Rancho Verde High School entering his senior year, he verbally committed to attend the Boise State Broncos on June 23. Smith said it was the coaching staff that drew him to Boise State in the first place, but after the death of Emil Smith the Boise State coaching staff was handcuffed in how they could handle this situation. Because Smith didn't sign his National Letter of Intent (which student athletes sign in February) the NCAA prevented Boise State from sending or even showing any form of condolences towards Smith's family and friends.

NCAA bylaw 13. 10. 2 states that member institutions may only confirm its recruitment of a prospective student athlete before he or she signs their NLI.

Bylaw 13. 2. 9 states how large a donation or token of support ($100) a school may provide in the event of the student athlete's death, provide he/she  signed their NLI.

Boise State could not attend the funeral of Smith, send flowers or cards to the family, phone the family to give their support or even address Smith by name in interviews. They were basically told to forget about him because he died to soon for the NCAA. This to me is a ridiculous rule by the NCAA and one that clearly needs to be changed or just thrown out all together, So basically they are saying that if a kid can't sign on a dotted line they don't matter to them, if a kid dies and any expense is over $100 then forget about it, this is really just ridiculous. The NCAA wants to use kids to make billions of dollars but if they cant make them any money then whatever happens to them doesn't matter; I personally haven't had the pleasure of becoming a parent just yet, and my heart and I'm sure the heart of the entire Boise State institution goes out to the parents of this young man. I don't know what its like to lose a child but I know that it cant be something that any parent can/wants to handle, I pray for the parents of Emil Smith and if nothing else should make the NCAA open their eyes to how ridiculous their "RULE BOOK" is. Let this be it!!