1. I am disappointed by this outcome but certainly not surprised. You can blame the COI all you want, but this decision reeks of Top Men. And the fix was in from the beginning, which is why Balas and Wetzel and all the other homers and honks knew all along that scUM was going to get a slap on the wrist despite proven violations of not one but two NCAA Bylaws (repeat violator; aggravated Level I) that clearly warranted, if not mandated, a multi-year postseason ban.
2. So how did the COI deal with those pesky little Bylaws? They reanimated the corpse of the student athlete! Yes, like a medieval saint, when the COI pried open the tomb of the long dead student-athlete they found that the body was incorrupt. A miracle from God and indisputable evidence that the student-athlete is holy. So holy, in fact, that he has the divine power to make a multi-year postseason ban disappear: "However, the panel determined that a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program. Thus, the panel determined a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty instead of a two-year postseason ban."
3. Of course, nobody really believes for a minute that this decision had anything to do with scUM student-athletes. If you haven't already noticed, "sports" is now the least important element of the "Sports-Media-Wagering" triumvirate (or should I say trifecta?). It's no longer a case of the tail wagging the dog – sports has become the tail, and a curly little tail at that. Athletic competitions don't real mean anything anymore, other than as content to support the media and wagering industries. Like it or not, scUM is a big brand that attracts lots of eyes and ears and dollars, and removing scUM content hurts the "dog". In this case, the dog barked. And Top Men listened lest the dog actually bite.
4. Okay, so the COI (or Top Men, same difference) didn't want to damage their relationships with their media and wagering "partners" (or masters, to be more accurate) by removing one of their biggest brands from the lucrative postseason market. I get that logic, it makes sense to me. With that being the case, why not force scUM to vacate all of their ill-gotten wins and titles instead? Because in an era where gambling on sporting events is not only broadly legal but highly encouraged through vast marketing campaigns, you simply can't make the results of games "un-happen". As
@billmac91 stated earlier in this thread:
I’d imagine there were some class action lawsuits on deck, had the NCAA vacated wins and plainly stated the cheating altered outcomes of games and therefore impacted money placed on the games.
In the past, cheaters were punished to protect the integrity of the game. Now, cheaters will be rewarded to protect the integrity of the wager. The cheater will never be forced to give back what he won in the past, or prevented from competing in the future, because the media-wagering complex cannot allow the public to think that anyone is using loaded dice or a stacked deck. If someone is caught cheating (I mean, not
really cheating, mind you, but doing something that maybe falls into a loophole or two), there will be stern language and hefty fines and a few heads are gonna roll, but in the end the Top Men will determine that there is "insufficient evidence that [insert cheating scandal here] changed the outcome of games."
5. And really, when you think about it, what does it matter if games are fixed? Or if not outright fixed, at least played on a uneven field. As long the viewer is entertained and the gambler is ignorant and the conferences and coaches and players are adequately compensated, who really loses? Sure, a few hardcore fans will walk away, disgusted at seeing their favorite sport compromised to such an extent that it is no longer recognizable or enjoyable. But who cares about guys like us? We'll be replaced by legions of gamblers who root for point spreads and over-unders and moneylines, not for the scarlet and gray (or whatever colors your favorite jersey happens to be).