What guidelines does the NCAA go by when dealing out punishment?  Is it completely subjective or is there some method to the madness?  I ask because the punishments were just handed out to the Miami Hurricane players and they seem pretty week compared to other recent rulings....

Shapiro comes out and claims that he has given money to 75 players in the program.  Miami is widely thought of as a dirty program from their earlier days.  When it was discovered that players from the current team had taken money, the players, such as their starting quarterback, were handed  as little as 1 game suspensions and are forced to pay the money back..Who do they pay the money back to??? Shapiro is in jail.  Are they sending their checks to the pen or is it going straight to the NCAA pockets.

Tech was on probation because coaches sent a few text messages.  Seems far less harmful than players accepting money.

A.J. Green from Georgia sells HIS jersey and is suspended 4 games...

Reggie Bush and his family as well as basketball player O.J. Mayo accepted benefits from USC.  In return Reggie forfeited his heisman, the football team is on probation for 4 years and is not allowed in bowl games for 2 years and had to forfeit 14 wins.  This is an enormous penalty to pay for the actions of two athletes.  These are the only two players that the NCAA named in their investigation, but Miami had at least 8 players the NCAA could prove were involved with Shapiro....Seems like Miami had far less institutional control than USC but received far less punishment.

The consistency just isn't there for me.  I don't understand and am curious if anyone has any idea as to the approach the NCAA takes to these transgressions.  I'm sure there are many more examples to look at but these are the first that come to mind.

Wreck em