Have you heard about what happened with Utah Valley University and the Western Athletic Conference? Utah Valley and the WAC got into a last minute fight over UVU’s $1 million exit fee as UVU heads to the Big West, and for a minute it looked like the WAC might keep them out of the conference tournaments. Then the conference said the court told them the money was on its way, so UVU got cleared to play after all.
All’s well that ends well, or is it? The situation with the WAC and UVU resolved itself, but that doesn’t fix the intent behind the WAC to punish a school. But here’s the kicker, it wouldn’t have just punished Utah Valley, it would have punished both the men’s and women’s basketball players more. Why should the players be denied a chance to win a conference championship, or even make a once in a lifetime run in the NCAA tournament because of the decisions their administration makes?
Why take that opportunity away from the hard working young men and women who have worked for years just for this championship opportunity? Why even threaten that? This situation could have been much worse, and we are happy for the players at UVU who get to showcase their talents to go out and win a championship, but it should not have gotten this far. Too often enforcement & punishment hurt the players rather the people who make the decisions leading to the consequence in the first place.
