Georgia Tech cornerback Reuben Houston (allegedly) conspired to possess and distribute about 100 pounds of marijuana, yet an Atlanta-area judge has ordered him back on the football team. Despite facing felony drug charges and not being on the team at all this season, coach Chan Gailey said he’d be on the team and playing this weekend against Miami.
(Judge M. Gino) Brogdon said Georgia Tech’s decision to expel Houston, then readmit him but exclude him from football “was arbitrary and strikingly dissimilar to the school’s treatment of other similarly situated athletes who have been accused of breaking the law.”
The most troublesome thing about the ruling are it’s possible future implications. What are you allowed to suspend a player for? If you can’t do anything about a guy trying to sell $60,000 worth of weed, can you sit a guy for missing class? Disrupting the team? Nearly killing a childhood friend in a bar fight? Coaches and universities have to have the ability to discipline their players.
Since when is it the courts’ decision on who gets to play college football? As the Georgia Tech A.D. Dave Braine said, playing college football is a privilege, not a right.
reply to #1
Brian
November 16th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
Great opinion piece on what this ruling means for college athletics from ESPN.com’s Roger Cossack.