Commentary: What went wrong?

KANSAS CITY--Make no mistake, Missouri is pissed off. After nearly 24 hours of stewing privately, Director of Athletics Jim Sterk and Chancellor Alexander Cartwright spoke to reporters for about 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon expressing disappointment, disbelief and mostly dissatisfaction at the NCAA's summary rejection of Mizzou's appeal of NCAA sanctions.

"Shock quickly set in," Sterk said of receiving the notice on Monday night. "Now I'm just angry."

At times during their press conference, Sterk and Cartwright expressed surprise, confusion and even sadness. The athletic director had to pause briefly, choking up when he talked about Barry Odom, Steve Bieser and Larissa Anderson informing their seniors that they would not be able to play in the postseason.

So, yeah, Missouri is angry. It is confused. Cartwright and Sterk pointed to Mississippi State's case, which appeared nearly identical to Missouri's. They even came equipped with a handout comparing the similarities for reporters.

"No one can look at the Mizzou and Mississippi State cases and say that common sense was used," Serk said. "There was no logic used in today's decision and result."

So what would Missouri do differently if it could go back to the beginning?

"I don't think I'd do anything differently," Sterk said. "I think we did everything right. Where it fell apart was with the NCAA staff and the organization."

Cartwright later repeated the sentiment: "I can't think of anything we would do differently."

Hindsight is 20/20. But knowing the result, if given another chance, I asked if they would fully cooperate with the process again.

Cartwright: "It's the right thing to do."

Sterk: "It's an NCAA rule."

On one hand, I get it. Missouri felt good about its part of the process. It simply felt it was dealing with an unfair jury. Sterk said he felt Mizzou was made an example of because the Committee on Infractions felt justice had not been served in the North Carolina academic fraud case that was heard directly before Missouri's. The Tar Heels escaped without penalty, essentially because the fraudulent classes and grades that were given to athletes were also made available to regular students. Perhaps Mizzou should have had Yolanda Kumar tutor more average students too.

But on the other hand, you cannot wail and scream that the enforcement process is broken, that things must change, and then say that you would fully play along with the process again. I'll admit it's unfair to criticize the approach without offering a solution. Perhaps had Missouri flipped the double birds to the NCAA Kansas style, or chosen to ignore imposed penalties like Memphis, the punishment would be even more severe. Maybe it wouldn't have worked. But you know the only thing we know right now? What they did do didn't work either.

Part of that most certainly lies with the NCAA. The governing body sent an eight-page report to Missouri which used a lot of words to say, more or less, "We heard your argument and we don't like it. We make the rules. Deal with it." Basically, the NCAA delivered a Kim Anderson walking off the court against Auburn message to Missouri.

"There is no information on why it took 19 weeks to basically stay the decision," Sterk said. "I haven't heard anything from them."

The punishment didn't make sense. It wasn't consistent with other cases. It seemed far too harsh for the crime. And the NCAA doesn't even have to tell anyone why it did what it did. We make the rules. Play by them or get punished. And there's really nothing you can do about it.

Oh yeah, about that...

I asked Sterk if there were any more avenues available to Missouri. Many fans have brought up the idea of a lawsuit, or even of leaving the NCAA. The latter isn't feasible, at least not yet. To work, Missouri would need widespread support from its peers. Walking away alone and filling your schedule with Lindenwood and Columbia College and other NAIA schools is the equivalent of shutting down the athletic department. Everyone leaves or no one leaves. And right now, no one else is leaving. So that's not an option for now.

"I think that's the one for the membership of where we want to go from here," Sterk said. "I think that our athletic directors, our presidents and chancellors and commissioners need to collectively decide where we want to go. And I think (that) because the current system is broken."

But what about going all Jerry Tarkanian on their asses? Could Missouri sue? Sterk said he asked a law firm that very question six months ago.

"If this is not overturned, if the wrong decision comes out, what legal recourse do we have?" Sterk asked. "They said, unfortunately not. There's no legal recourse that we have."

And so, essentially, Missouri has to deal with it. The sanctions are in place. They're not going away and Missouri is out of places to turn. Maybe something changes. Eventually. But the NCAA, despite its comic non-profit label, is big business. In big business, change comes at a glacial pace.

"There's a lot of disgruntled people in the membership and where we go from here I don't know," Sterk said. "There needs to be reform in the system to gain back some credibility. The credibility, you know, every day, every week, I think that kept eroding on this case."

It won't be days or weeks before change occurs. Maybe in years. Until then, the NCAA's message is clear: We own the sandbox. We make the rules in the sandbox. And there are no other sandboxes in which you can play.

So Missouri stays. Not happily. Maybe not willingly. But it stays. And it plays by the rules. As unjust as they may seem today.