Stinging the Hornets


No wonder the NCAA needed five years to conclude its investigation of the Alabama State University athletic department.

Given the accusations leveled by the organization this week, the NCAA must have needed to field army of accountants and buy a battery of computers to calculate the grand total of alleged violations.

The NCAA sent ASU a notice of allegations that accused the school of -- get ready for this -- at least 668 violations in four different sports.

That's not a misprint.

If that sounds like a lot, well, it is. It's believed to be the largest naughty list ever unfurled. Florida A&M was once charged with 196 violations. According to a story in the Montgomery Advertiser, nearly 500 violations stemmed from ineligible football players being allowed to work out in the offseason. The NCAA also cited 40 instances in which the grades of football players were changed without the knowledge of their instructors.

If that's the case, then ASU's Academic Percentage Rating should have ranked right up there with Brown and Yale this week.

It didn't.

ASU will have until June 27 to respond to the NCAA's allegations, the most serious of which is the always ominous ''lack of institutional control.''