So the NCAA Infractions Committee has apparently put University of Alabama on three year probation, vacated its records, and imposed a $43,900 fine (without any loss of scholarships) for this (HT to ydg2008)

A total of 201 student athletes from 16 sports including football were involved and the total value of the improper benefits was $40,000. The committee found that 22 of the athletes receiving almost $22,000 in benefits who were aware they were impermissible.

University of Alabama officials said they were disappointed at the severity of the penalties given no competitive advantage was gained for any sport and "not one athlete pocketed one dollar" in the scheme. Athletic Director Mal Moore said the university would "carefully consider our options regarding an appeal."

Note the violations were self reported by University of Alabama which also immediately took the following actions:

When the textbook scheme was brought to light in the middle of the 2007 Crimson Tide football season, five players were suspended for four games due to their participation.

Our friends at Roll Bama Roll are taking the news in stride and with some sanity. Some are calling the punishment rational:

If those numbers are correct, then 179 athletes received less than half the total amount, and the other 22 "intentional" wrongdoers got more than half. That seems to me to be two entirely separate things. And makes receiving any punishment for what seemed to be a very minor thing a little more rational.

There is also the sobering sentiment that the NCAA could have come down on Alabama lot harder:

Football only had a handful of kids involved, but they were the ones really racking up. Those four football players in question in that passage racked up right around $12,000. We were all hoping the football guys barely got any benefit, but obviously they were the ones really doing it in terms of value. Those four players represent about 2% of the athletes involved, but reaped about 30% of the total benefit.

With that in mind, my initial reaction is that the NCAA could have certainly came down much harder on football.

and giving NCAA actually some credit:

I’ll give the NCAA credit here, I think they did a good job of sorting out the kids who got the $2 booklets from the kids who racked up $4,000 in textbooks for their friends.

Note how those reactions are dramatically saner and more reasonable based on reality than the standard delusion we have been accustomed from Pom Pom's lapdogs across town.

So now the obvious question becomes if the NCAA can burn Alabama and put its program on 3 year probation based on a self reported violations involving textbooks, what should it do if it find the pile of allegations against U$C*'s athletic programs involving hundreds of thousands of dollars of improper benefits involving star/program making athletes to be true? Of course keep in mind as far as we know from public accounts none of the alleged major violations involving U$C* has been self reported?

So what should the NCAA do to U$C if the gets to the bottom of those pile of allegations involving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of improper benefits? One thing we know. Given the optics on how programs like Alabama and Oklahoma are getting burned by the NCAA, it's not going to look very good if they keep remaining silent about Petey's U$C*. 

GO BRUINS.