NCAA suspends Silvio de Sousa for this year and next for some reason

For some reason, the NCAA, an organization so corrupt it could make health insurance companies blush, has decided Silvio de Sousa has to sit for the rest of this season and all of next season, effectively ending his college basketball career.

Understandably, Kansas is not happy about Silvio being given effectively a lifetime ban for his guardian accepting payments from Under Armour without his knowledge.

Curiously, Josh Selby had to sit 9 games for actually accepting money. It is almost like the NCAA is inconsistent.

Kansas now has to play the rest of its season without Silvio and without Udoka Azubuike, taxing a suddenly thin front line and really putting Kansas’s Big 12 streak in jeopardy, as well as reducing the odds of another Final Four run.

The real tragedy, though, is that the NCAA has decided to punish a kid for something he had no knowledge of, and essentially shove him into the wilderness. De Sousa wasn’t an NBA prospect yet, but with another year or two at Kansas, who knows.

Now, he is most certainly going to have to fight it out in Europe for far less money than he could make as an NCAA rotation player. Meanwhile, nothing is going to happen to his guardian, and the fallout for everyone else will be minimal.

Thankfully, the NCAA is here to watch out for the kids.

Calling this a travesty of a decision is an understatement, especially when you realize every school that has been to the Sweet 16 in, oh, forever, has shoe companies, AAU coaches, agents, etc. giving kids money like crazy. And they should. Yes, an education is great. But if you think that is compensation for all the revenue these kids generate not just for the schools, but the NCAA at large, you’re crazy.

As it stands, Kansas will appeal the ruling, but barring some sort of a lawsuit and an injunction (both of which seem unlikely) Silvio is done at Kansas. The NCAA has spun its wheel and come up with the following: Thanks for being a great player in the NCAA tournament and making us a ton of money, Silvio, now get lost because of something your guardian did and you had no knowledge of.

As always, fuck the NCAA.