NCAA is in a deep hole

If haven't been following the Sabazz Muhammad NCAA case, a quick primer:

• The NCAA started investigating him pre-season and declared him ineligible for dealing with a financial adviser who paid his way on recruiting trips.
• ESPN and the LA Times breaks a story in November that basically calls into question whether the NCAA had pre-judged the case without having facts...any facts...at their disposal. By the way, the story was broken because the NCAA's investigator's boyfriend was blabbing on a plane about how Muhammad wasn't going to play and that his girlfriend was going to make sure of it.
• Did I mention the blabbing boyfriend was having the conversation just a week after they started the investigation?
• The NCAA decides Muhammad can play the next day, just in time for UCLA to play Georgetown and Georgia in Brooklyn.

Now, the lead investigator, the one who apparently told her boyfriend who blabbed loudly on a plane, has been fired.

Sources say the NCAA has fired Abigail Grantstein, its lead investigator in the Shabazz Muhammad case.
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) December 21, 2012

The NCAA is not the most well regarded organization, especially among those being investigated. While this whole sorted episode isn't good for the organization, you can rest assured that Abigail Grantsein wasn't and isn't the only investigator who prejudged her case (or had the case pre-judged for her) or talked to others about the decided outcome. I'm pretty sure the next time enforcement shows up in a department, you can expect the department's lawyers to be pretty loud about process and fairness.

TD

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