Mike Tirico: The "leaderless" NCAA is a "failed setup that is helping to ruin intercollegiate athletics"

Mike Tirico, a Syracuse alum, joined the Upon Further Review program on ESPN Syracuse this afternoon to discuss the sanctions to his alma mater and head coach Jim Boeheim. An audio snippet is above. Tirico said that the loss of scholarships could be a huge blow to the program, and was later asked if the manner in which the NCAA went after Boeheim in the report and with discipline was fair or not. He answered:

Since the initial news dropped, it emerged from the report that Syracuse director of basketball operations had access to players’ emails, and was contacting professors and submitting coursework on their behalves. Meanwhile, Syracuse.com crunched the numbers and estimated that the fines imposed by the NCAA would cost the university about $1.7 million.