The NCAA Reaches a New Low as They're Forcing a Future Marine Officer to Sue So He Can Play One More Season of Navy Baseball
With Selection Sunday just 12 days away, kicking off what is the best 4-to-5 week stretch of the sports calendar, between March Madness, the Masters, MLB Opening Day, the NBA and NHL playoff races and the NFL draft, it's easy to overlook all the abuses of power by college sports' governing body over the past century or so. After all, the basketball is still great, even in these tumultuous times. The athletes have gotten control over their lives that was denied to them for generations. It's led to some chaos, and there's still a lot to be figured out. But it's not a stretch to believe it will all make sense once the dust settles and reasonable people agree on a plan that works in the best interests of the athletes, the schools, and above all, the fans.
But here's your reminder that the NCAA is not reasonable. It has reasonable people in it, to be sure. But on the whole, it's an insane institution with a genius for fighting all the wrong battles. Like the one against second baseman Brock Murtha, of the Naval Academy, who's currently in court fighting for the right to play one more season for the Midshipmen before he goes off into harm's way as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
This young patriot:
Murtha is willing to lead Marines in actual, physical, deadly combat. But his current battle is an expensive one, waged against the NCAA's army lawyers who are armed with weapons of mass technicalities. And apparently will stop at nothing to make sure this one American hero won't be turning double plays against Dartmouth anytime soon:
Source - A federal court in Maryland is set to hear arguments Thursday on a temporary restraining order motion in a uniquely framed NCAA eligibility lawsuit filed by Navy baseball player Brock Murtha. The college senior was denied a waiver last spring, which the Naval Academy has since said stemmed largely from errors its athletics department made in filing its petition.
Murtha is seeking a fifth year of eligibility to compete in the current college baseball season, now three weeks underway, before he is scheduled to commission as a Marine Corps officer in May. He says his decision to transfer to Navy from Notre Dame in 2022 was based largely on assurances from the academy that he would retain four full years of athletic eligibility. …
Murtha frames his case as one of broader implications, including that of national security.
“A lot of these cases are just about athletes extending their careers, whether for higher draft stock or maybe to get compensated more down the road,” Murtha told Sportico in a telephone interview this week. “For me, I have a mandatory hard cap on my career. There is no playing later or transferring next year. So, I feel the NCAA is effectively truncating the professional development of a future military officer.” …
Murtha’s ordeal highlights how athletes must rely on their universities … to accurately interpret, communicate and facilitate the NCAA eligibility process. What remains unclear, however, is the degree to which Navy’s admitted errors actually prevented Murtha from competing this season. Murtha … says he remains largely in the dark about the association’s rationale for continuing to deny his eligibility.
On Feb. 10, the association sent a terse letter to Navy senior associate AD Loretta Lamar, issuing its final denial of the school’s multiple requests for Murtha to be able to appeal his case, after failing to do so within the required 30-day window after it was first rejected. …
“While my peers are sleeping or studying, I am awake until the early morning hours researching NCAA litigation,” he wrote. “I have missed portions of my academic day to speak with counsel. This constant state of legal survival led to my lowest semester GPA in four years this past fall. The sleep deprivation and mental exhaustion are not merely ‘stress’—they are a direct result of the NCAA’s refusal to provide a fair process, and they are actively degrading my readiness for the fleet.”
That concern, he told Sportico, has become only more acute in light of the U.S. military action in Iran.
“We are definitely in a time of conflict, and me and my fellow midshipman will be thrown right into fight right away,” Murtha said. “It is so unpredictable right now, we don’t know where we are going to end up and what we are doing—we just need to be as prepared as possible. This year, baseball is not just about a fifth year but about a final semester of preparation.”
Not that it should matter, but part of the issue from the NCAA's standpoint seems to have to do with a season Murtha spent at Notre Dame, and whether it constitutes a "year of eligibility." Apparently he was a defensive placement in five games and had one at bat. But even if it was more, that's arguing that he didn't put a cover sheet on his TPS report. It's picking the tiniest of nits.
We live in a world where there are guys in their late 20s still in college athletics. And coming back after playing pro ball just to scoop up any loose cash they forgot to grab on their way to the draft:
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But sure, let's take extra precautions to make sure a guy who might be boots on the ground calling for air support in a few months (God forbid, let's not be doing this), won't be standing in a Patriot League batters box getting signs from his third base coach between now an then. For the protection of all student athletes, of course.
Brock Murtha is literally willing to die on actual hills for his country, while the NCAA is metaphorically dying on a technical hill to make sure he won't be applying the tag on any caught stealings this spring. Not on their watch.
You can argue that none of these actions constitute a "threat to national security" as this article describes it. But who are any of us to say? If Murtha thinks one last season on the Midshipmen roster is going to make him a better officer, make him better at leading Marines, then that's it. There's simply no other argument. This whole thing should never have required any more effort on his part than Navy shooting the NCAA an email and every claim against his eligibility being dropped.
Just keep all this in mind the next time the people in charge of college sports are doing some Salute to Service or standing for the Anthem, while they collect 7-figure salaries while screwing over the very people they claim to support.
Godspeed, Marine. Stay safe.