The ND-McAlarney Debate Continues

Everyone has been weighing in on the fact that ND point guard Kyle McAlarney was dismissed from ND and can't apply for re-admittance until after the summer semester. MJD pointed out the condemnation of the penalty from Garry Parrish from CBS Sportsline. The part that stinks is that they dragged out the decision -- though the fact that school was out of session the prior couple of weeks would be a factor in that. After all, this was the school's Student Affairs Committee. Not so easy to convene when there are members of the SAC on break. McAlarney was charged on December 28.

Still, a month later to decide put the kid in limbo. Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News blasted the mother for being upset at the school.

When I first read Janice McAlarney was telling reporters she was "ashamed," I thought that was kind of a harsh comment to make in public about her son Kyle, the erstwhile starting point guard at Notre Dame.

Ah, but she wasn't talking about Kyle. After Notre Dame suspended him for the semester because of his arrest on marijuana possession charges, she told the Associated Press she was "ashamed of the university. My son is a great kid. He did not deserve this. The punishment did not fit the crime."

Given her attitude, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised McAlarney was arrested for marijuana possession after a policeman stopped his car because, he said, it was being driven erratically. The policeman smelled what he considered to be the odor of marijuana coming from the car, then searched and found a substance police said tested positive for the drug. And all of this happened in the middle of the season, by the way.

If a parent doesn't see this as a very big deal, I'm not sure how a child is going to.

Uhhh, that's a little unfair. Just like Parrish was being a bit unfair by floating the ND screwing McAlarney conspiracy theory (leave that to us tinfoil-wearing irresponsible bloggers).

The kid has to bear responsibility and pay the price. This is his mother, though, and they have been waiting a month to find out. She's probably had a month to kick his butt over the stupidity. He had started classes and was not denying responsibility. He had already gotten into a diversion program for first time offenders with the Prosecutor's office. Of course she would be upset to see him kicked out of school -- not simply suspended from the team. He is stuck taking the semester off and being at home.

The thing I had been wondering about was whether this was a typical decision from the ND SAC for similar violations of the du lac. That would go a lot further to determining the "fairness." ND blogger at Black and Green has an ambiguous answer.

Apparently you haven't heard that just about every other drug case ends up with a semester dismissal from Notre Dame. ND is not like a public school, it's not like Boston College, it's not like any other university in the world. True, this suspension is harsh. You should have thought about your punishment before you decided to light up.

So if this was typical, maybe this is not so out of proportion. Except that it is actually not a single semester suspension. It is two semesters. He can't apply for re-admittance to the summer session and try and catch up on a missed semester -- as pointed out in the comments.

I stand corrected. As of right now, K-Mac's summer suspension is in limbo. A two-semester suspension is harsher than most, although students are home over the Summer.

Unless they are taking summer classes. That's why there's a summer semester. As it stands now, at least three schools -- Xavier, Virginia and Michigan State -- are very interested in McAlarney considering their schools. At least ND doesn't have to worry about him transferring to a Big East school. The Big East has a prohibition on transfers from schools within the conference.