We have this discussion every year. Every year it is the same, and the same arguments are trotted out:
- UGA's drug policies are too tough. Hard to argue with this, especially with a lack of uniformity of policies around collegiate athletics. If you want me to get on board with the 'NCAA cares about student-athlete's welfare'
lietalking point, develop a consistent illegal drug and testing policy, instead of simply testing, and requiring testing, but leaving the policies and testing to the individual schools. - UGA puts itself at a disadvantage because it puts the name of offenders in the public on the first offense. This it a tougher one. On one hand, the policy isn't a surprise to players. They should know that if they smoke the reefer and get caught, they will end up on the AJC and ESPN. On the other, at some point, how much do players who know they can't give up on the weed decide that coming to Athens isn't worth the risk when they can play for at least 12 of the SEC members, or nearly all of the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, or B1.5G and get a free pass for the first offense.
- We continually shoot our self in the foot by how, when, and who we test. It is simple to me. Schools are responsible who whom they test, with a few exceptions set out by the NCAA. For example, you can be damn sure LSU isn't testing on Ash Wednesday. I know that sounds hypocritical, and I'm willing to own that. However, if you want to help a kid who is having issues with smoking up, may be testing him right before the biggest game of the season or immediately after he gets hurt isn't the best kind of help we can give.
- We hurt our national perception by the announced suspensions. We are a laughing stock and media punch line. Publicity is an important part of the national game. No one is congratulation us for our tough policy. And it keeps giving Steve Spurrier too many opportunities to gig us, which pisses me off.
- Our scheduling isn't helping us. If we continue to have a tough policy, we need to find a way to not open with Clemson ever again. I'm not a fan of this solution, as I think we should play more of these high profile games.
As I stated earlier, we aren't changing our policies under Coach Richt. We can give up on that. However, there are some things we can do to help ameliorate the issues we have while keeping our policy.
By the way, this isn't a JHC shouldn't be on suspension post. I'm ok with the second test policy, which is a bit stronger than the other SEC schools, but close enough to be consistent. He should be suspended. And I hope his grandfather wore him out for lying to him and then letting him made a fool of himself in the press.
TD
