It's up to the colleges to give the NCAA any teeth. The organization was founded in 1906 as a way to save college football, a sport so violent that Teddy Roosevelt was beginning to think it should be banned. They stopped practices such as using ringers, - see Purdue Boilermakers- rules disputes, -see Notre Dame and Michigan- and established a code for recruiting and eligibility.
How that code is enforced has a great deal to do with how certain conferences, Notre Dame, TV and uniform money want it enforced. If the colleges and aligned powers wanted the NCAA to be effective they would give them the money and the authority to do so.
In terms of hype, Dez Bryant was no Johnny Manziel, and Oklahoma State had nothing on their season schedule to compare to the hype of a rematch game between the back-to-back National Champs of Alabama and the Heisman winning quarterback of Texas A&M. If Manziel were to be suspended, the glamor of the game would all but disappear, something that would cost ABC/ESPN and the SEC a huge payday.
If I were an African - American, it would be hard to look at the I-want-you-to-sit-in-your-room-and-think-about-what-you've-done punishment handed Manziel opposite the 10 game suspension Dez Bryant received, or the season long suspension given to Terrell Pryor, or the all-but-the-end-of-the-season punishment given Devier Posey and not feel like race played a roll in each case.
