After an awful lot of time waiting, and waiting, and waiting on the NCAA to rule on Syracuse University’s appeal, we finally have our answer: the Orange, and Jim Boeheim, will still have to vacate more than 100 wins, but Syracuse will get back one scholarship per year through the duration of the penalty.
You can read the full breakdown of the appeal decision here. This is obviously less than ideal for the Orange, and still seems excessive in relation to the actual misdeeds committed by a few players over the past decade plus, but the most important part of the appeal was always getting some or all scholarships back.
Syracuse will still be short on scholarships, but the difference between 10 scholarships and 11 will be felt almost immediately. Taurean Thompson, a 6-foot-10 forward in the class of 2016, has long been considered a Syracuse lean but there was no room in that class for him with Tyus Battle and Matthew Moyer already committed. Now, however, there’s plenty of room, and as he told CuseNation.com’s Ben Sigel, he’d pick Syracuse if pressed right now:
Taurean Thompson: "If I had to decide now, I would probably go (to Syracuse). | Story: https://t.co/XQfmUnbOXS
— Syracuse Basketball (@cusesigel) November 25, 2015
Syracuse hasn’t issued a public response yet, but the Daily Orange’s Sam Blum did tweet the initial response from Kevin Quinn:
From Kevin Quinn on the NCAA appeal resolution: pic.twitter.com/6MvI4fCKpF
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) November 25, 2015
At the end of the day, things could have shaken out worse for Syracuse. At least the NCAA backed off at least a little bit on the penalties. Now, we’ll just await the decision on Jim Boeheim’s personal appeal about his nine game ACC suspension, which, at this rate, we should probably hear about shortly after Jimmy B retires, knowing the NCAA.
