The big, mean NCAA gets even meaner

You have to wonder what's in the food at the NCAA cafeteria to make the people so mean.

Mean enough to suspend one kid for renting a car and two others for taking part in a charity game to raise money for cancer research.

Mean enough to suspend a fourth -- for a dozen games -- because he played against middle-aged men in a rec league on his own time.

The NCAA will discuss the details in each case, but not the thinking that went into the decisions. Would you?

A spokeswoman said Tuesday the NCAA does not comment on infractions cases. Then she put down the phone, probably laughed out loud and resumed pulling the wings off flies.

In the first case, Memphis junior Antonio Burks will have to sit three games because somebody behind the counter at Avis ignored company policy -- drivers must be at least 25 and show a valid credit card -- and let the 22-year-old Burks rent a Cadillac by paying cash.

It's hard to know what steamed committee members more: that Burks' modest celebrity won him a benefit not available to the average student or that no one ever upgraded them to a luxury-class car without a coupon. Either way, Burks' appeal went nowhere.

Seem fair? As the commercials for a competing rental-car company like to say, "Not exactly."

Case No. 2 is a little more encouraging. North Carolina seniors Will Johnson and Jonathan Holmes were handed one-game suspensions for playing in a three-on-three campus charity tournament last spring. NCAA rules, designed to keep student-athletes from gaining any advantages, prohibit participating in outside competition during the school year and limits them to sanctioned summer events.

But somebody in the organization must have figured out how the suspensions to Johnson and Holmes made the NCAA look. The penalties were rescinded on appeal, and in time for both to make the season-opener against Penn State.

No such luck for Billy Edelin. The Syracuse freshman spent all of last year on a school-imposed suspension, and now he'll spend the early part of this one on the bench.

Last week, the NCAA suspended Edelin for the Orangemen's first 12 games -- one for each game he played in a rec league against 40-somethings -- and then turned down coach Jim Boeheim's offer to stand in for Edelin.

"I'd rather take a 10-game suspension myself," Boeheim said. "If that's what they want, I'd do that."

For Edelin, disappointment is nothing new. He arrived at Syracuse in the fall of 2001, as the most promising recruit in his class, but was suspended by the university that October. Two female students accused him of sexual misconduct, and although no charges were ever filed, Edelin spent the rest of the school year in virtual exile.

He was banned from even setting foot on the Syracuse campus. Among the team meetings Edelin never got to attend was the one where coaches go over which outside competitions are approved by the NCAA.

People who know Edelin have been impressed by the way he's handled himself since returning to Syracuse. He hasn't ducked questions about the misconduct accusations, instead expressing regret and asking for another chance.

The university reinstated Edelin last June. The strange thing is, if he'd taken off for Europe or South America and played pro ball over the summer, the maximum penalty would have been eight games.

But because he broke the occasional sweat playing 4-on-4 in a cramped elementary school gym with guys old enough to be his father, Edelin will have to sit out until a Jan. 18 game against Pittsburgh. The Big East season will be gearing up just as he returns, and Edelin will be thrown to the Panthers without having faced real competition in almost a season and a half.

"They always talk about these kids who jump to the NBA and say what they're missing, but then when you go to college they mess with people. I can't get out on the court," Edelin said.

Actually, he could have played in Tuesday night's exhibition against an Upstate AAU team that included a few former Syracuse players. It was his last chance to don the orange until the suspension is lifted. Instead, he decided to sit on the bench in gray sweats and watch.

A rule is a rule is a rule. But the NCAA has rescinded some suspensions because of the public-relations value or sloppy bookkeeping in the past and it certainly wouldn't hurt to add compassion to that list.

Not that Edelin was counting on it. He recently added another tattoo to accompany the one -- "Against all odds -- that he got in 10th grade.

The new one says simply: "You'll never feel my pain."

Jim Litke is a sports columnist for The Associated Press.