College football: bulletproof

If that's the case, why don't we hear more about them?

They have to go after more than the non-revenue/Olympic sports to make the point. Football and men's basketball must be included. I do not recall the NCAA stripping anyone of a championship of a high-profile sport, i.e., one which receives national attention.

If I'm wrong, though, good. When did this occur?

 

The NCAA cannot strip a school of a football national championship because it does not award such a championship. The BCS can, and did for USC. The AP could if it wished, but not the NCAA.
It has never vacated a basketball title, and I'll bet never will. If UMass and Memphis had won their Final Fours, John Calipari would have two titles.

 

They never do it in Division I-A football because, as was pointed out, there is no NCAA title to strip.

This is probably an incomplete list:

https://sportsdelve.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/vacated-ncaa-national-championships/

 

I think the fact that Sam Mills didn't know USC's title had been stripped speaks to the effectiveness of title-stripping as a punishment. The greatest game of the decade didn't officially happen in January 2006 because USC was not officially there and did not officially lose.

(Of course, either way it still means the Heisman Trophy winner wasn't on the field on fourth-and-two.)

 

And let's note the NCAA didn't strip that title. The BCS did.

 

That's true. Another wonderful facet of the whole affair -- the BCS, upholder of all that is right and good and virtuous about amateur football.

 

If I'm not mistaken, schools with stripped FB titles can still claim national championships since, in cases where the title wasn't split, they have the AP title.

Stripping the BCS title is almost meaningless.

 

Until the NCAA proves it is willing to take more serious action, many of these punishments are merely windowdressing. In college-mad sports areas, fans treat these schools the same way a lot of metro areas regard their actual sports franchises. Those fans couldn't care less if their "teams" get busted, just that they win. Many of those same fans have limited knowledge of what the NCAA is supposed to do.

It's pretty apparent the NCAA won't jump in because it is scared to death that this might slow down the gravy train. What they're trying to do now is reactive instead of proactive and that's a big problem. It's more they're upset that they got caught continuing to enjoy the extra cash bags while ignoring the problems that got the organization to this sorry state.

I knew the BCS stripped Southern California of its title, and I also aware that the BCS was and is not run by the NCAA. I was aware that the BCS title was not the NCAA's to award, but fact is that the member institutions, fans and media regard the BCS title as THE champion of Division I/FBS.

So again ... when did the NCAA strip a national title away based on rules violations? As Michael pointed out, the NCAA wouldn't have taken a title away from John Calipari, likely because it would have been too embarrassed to admit that someone cheated their way to the ultimate prize.

 

In all fairness, the NCAA cannot strip someone of a title it did not bestow. The 2005 NCAA Division I football champion was, and remains, Appalachiasn State.

 

Unless penalties including giving the money back from bowl appearances, TV contracts, etc, there is no sanction severe enough to keep schools from going after the rewards of breaking the rules. The NCAA has already decided the death penalty was too severe to ever be used again. That leaves financial penalties as the only real option if they're serious, which they're not.

 

If they started pulling home games like they did Baylor's non-cons in hoops I'd think you would get some schools attention pretty quickly. Suddenly, the alums and students are missing out on their weekly cocktail parties, sponsors are pissed because they can't reach the audience they were promised. Local businesses that depend on game day business would be ticked as well.

 

They didn't pull home games. They gave Baylor half a death penalty. They were barred from playing any non-conference games in 2005-2006. It wasn't part of the penalty but the Big 12 also sent them on the road for two of their first three games that season.