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The NCAA handed down harsh punishments on the Missouri Tigers on Thursday. The Tigers football, baseball and softball teams have been prohibited from postseason play in their respective upcoming seasons.
The rulings come after the conclusion of an academic fraud investigation, revolving around a tutor completing classwork for 12 student-athletes back in the years 2015 and 2016.
The NCAA investigation into academic fraud at MU reached its penalties today. No postseason for Mizzou football in 2019-20 or baseball or softball in 2018-19.https://t.co/v2jNqueBm2
— Tyler Murry (@TylerMurryABC17) January 31, 2019
Rather unsurprisingly, AD Jim Sterk issued a statement, in which Sterk states that the program will be appealing the harsh penalties handed down on them on Thursday.
Statements From University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander N. Cartwright & Director of Athletics Jim Sterk pic.twitter.com/Jo9ohPdQZi
— Mizzou Athletics (@MizzouAthletics) January 31, 2019
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody that Mizzou is planning on appealing. Frankly, the fact that the athletics program was hit with postseason bans for what certainly appeared to be a tutor going off on her own volition to complete classwork is pretty farcical. Especially when compared to, well, other athletic programs who’ve recently been dragged through the ringer and come out completely unscathed.
The Tigers football team can at take solace in the fact that Kelly Bryant is going nowhere. But there’ll be plenty of turbulence in Columbia for quite sometime, and perhaps deservedly so.
TSK will provide some more commentary on this story this weekend. Stay tuned.