Yeah, I haven't actually had a chance to read the NCAA's statement or ND's response because I'm in the field today but here are my truncated thoughts:
1. Blame the NCAA all you want, this is ND's fault. The NCAA has shown time and time again they let the worst offenders off the hook (besides USC lol) who actually commit violations for a competitive advantage... but hammer anyone who tries to "do the right thing" being strict and self-reporting honestly. In this case, ND didn't just self-report they conducted a LUDICROUS investigation and review of electronic documents the kind of which has NEVER been done in the history of collegiate academics. This probe was not only unnecessary, it was illogical.
Scenario 1: Notre Dame discovers plagiarism by some students, gives them zeros on the assignments, moves on.
Scenario 2: Notre Dame discovers plagiarism by some students, launches a massive multi-layer investigation of any and all of their correspondence and assignments including digital forensics, also reviews documents handled by all associates, suspends all players with any transgressions uncovered, and reports a potential violation because one student also happened to have a part time job on the support staff.
Scenario 1 we never hear of any of this and life moves on. Scenario 2 we lose multiple starters for the 2014 season and vacate 21 wins. Bunch of idiots in charge.
2. The NCAA is a bunch of assholes. This is no different than Kim Dunbar where all it takes is one person that wants to "make an example" and this is what you get. If the girl is just another student there is no grounds for any sort of "violation"... but simply because of an extracurricular activity she chose to participate in, they can classify commonplace cheating as a "benefit."
3. This has been in the works for awhile. When the NCAA opens an investigation, they're like OSHA. They're going to find something. Oversight bodies want to smack you as hard as possible to feel good about themselves and justify their existence. For well over a year now (really since the beginning) I'd heard we were going to have to vacate these wins. I've posted as much here more than a few times. Notre Dame administrators were incredulous that they were getting hit with sanctions for "doing everything right"... shows how utterly stupid and incompetent they are. The very day after the Frozen Five thing first broke I wrote a post for a blog stating definitively how we were handling the situation as poorly as possible and everything I said (I think, haven't actually read the statements yet) has been proven 100% correct.
