Would Tommy suspend O.J.?

In college football, there are four seasons. There is the regular season in the fall, recruiting in the winter, spring practice in the spring, and arrest season in the summer. Recently proving that the Gamecocks have not cornered the market on criminal activity, Clemson’s DeAndre McDaniel was recently charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in Central, South Carolina. The charge stems from an altercation between McDaniel and an alleged girlfriend. Bowden, after speaking with McDaniel, has not yet taken any action. Instead, he wants to wait and let the criminal process take its course.

Usually the controversy with college athletes getting in trouble is what the punishment by the coach should be. Is it enough? Is it not enough? Should they be kicked off? Etc. And usually the player admits guilt in the early going, takes his medicine, and puts it behind him.

McDaniel, on the other hand, just like his teammate Cortney Vincent and Carolina’s Dion Lecorn, maintains his innocence and has asked for a jury trial. Spurrier’s approach with Lecorn was different than Tommy’s. He suspended Lecorn immediately from team activities (granted it was in the off season and not for very long). But he did do something. Tommy, however, has taken the approach that his guys are innocent until guilt is either proven or admitted. Fair enough, but Bowden could be setting himself up for a lot of criticism.

Consider Lecorn’s trial (incidentally, any man that requests a jury trial in Lexington either thinks he has a lock solid defense or is simply a moron). If he is found innocent, then no further punishment is needed. He even garners sympathy for the slap on the wrist he did receive. If Dion is found guilty, Spurrier can consider if the punishment he gave him was enough or he could punish Lecorn further. Either way, Spurrier comes out looking like he did the right thing in suspending Lecorn initially, even if only symbolically.

Bowden, however, is playing a game of roulette. If Vincent and McDaniel are innocent, he wins. If they are found guilty, Bowden loses. Especially when you consider the charges – DUI and ABHAN. Vincent already played in the bowl game last year and both will surely play before their jury trials begin. Now I am not saying Bowden is wrong, I am just saying he is taking a gamble. Even giving both players a slap on the wrist could help him down the line if both players are found guilty.

Now consider this hypothetical. Suppose McDaniel is found innocent by a jury. Now suppose the alleged victim sues him in civil court. After all, that is what happened to O.J. Although he was found innocent of murder, he was found civilly liable for the deaths of the victims. How, you ask? Rather than the criminal standard of “beyond all reasonable doubt”, O.J.’s civil jury needed to only find it “more likely than not” that O.J. caused the victims’ deaths. Now suppose McDaniel’s alleged victim sues him for her emergency room bill and the jury finds him liable. Now what? McDaniel is not guilty, but his hands are not exactly clean. Would Tommy punish the criminally innocent?

Now the last thing I am here to do is to compare murder to an alleged shoving contest. This is all for the sake of argument. But the above hypothetical is not that far fetched. And Tommy’s “no punishment until a verdict of guilt is rendered” stance on these issues would put him in a tough spot. So the real question is: since Clemson already has Thunder and Lightning, is there room for The Juice?