1:03 pm | March 4, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
Albany lacrosse coach Scott Marr took aim at the NCAA on Monday after one of his top players, sophomore Tehoka Nanticoke, was suspended for a violation on social media.
“The NCAA makes a lot of money off of athletes and they pretend to be student-athlete friendly,” Marr said Monday on ESPN Radio 104.5. “I don’t see any friendliness with suspending a kid indefinitely for making a mistake.”
According to Marr, Nanticoke did not play in Saturday’s 17-16 loss to No. 3 Cornell because he was ruled ineligible for tagging a stick-stringing company on his Instagram account. Marr said the suspension was indefinite until the NCAA investigated.
In a tweet Monday, the NCAA said Albany first reached out to them about Nanticoke after the university withheld him from competition Saturday, and that they are reviewing the facts submitted by the school.
Marr noted that lacrosse is not a revenue sport and said Nanticoke is not going to make millions of dollars when he gets out of college, like a football or basketball player might.
“He put something on Instagram that violated a rule. Big-brother monopoly that we work under doesn’t allow you to do those types of things,” Marr said Monday during a weekly radio appearance. “No warning. No nothing. Just instant. You’re ineligible until proven innocent, I guess. Very disappointing. “
The coach said Nanticoke, who scored 50 goals and had 32 assists last season, may be able to play Tuesday in the Great Danes’ home opener against UMass but it might be held up because of the NCAA reinstatement process.
“No urgency,” Marr said. “They have to do their due diligence on all the millions of dollars he’s making off his stringing-stick company.
“I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, they can get through it quickly.”
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