"while being convicted"? What the hell does that even mean?
You're wrong anyway.
Money quote: "Smith was immediately suspended by UW coach Bret Bielema and removed from the team on Aug. 4."
Yeah, that was Aug 4 of 2008. This incident happened in the summer of 07. Smith was suspended in Aug '07 and quickly reinstated for fall camp.
Here's an article from Andy Baggot....
Baggot: UW policy smells fishy from outside
By ANDY BAGGOT
608-252-6175
[email protected]
They have to know how this looks, don't they?
Shortly before the University of Wisconsin football team opened preseason camp Monday, suspended sophomore tailback Lance Smith was reinstated to active duty.
Followers of the program — cynics and season ticket holders alike — saw it coming. They pointed and laughed in a way that suggested some poor schlub's fly was open.
In truth, they were chuckling at a process that has become all too familiar in the past 11 months.
It goes like this: A vital member of the UW football team is arrested. He is suspended by the school in accordance with its student-athlete discipline policy. He is reinstated just in time to suit up for the next big on-field assignment.
It's happened three times since last September, which makes you wonder: The powers-that-be at UW have to know how this looks, don't they?
It looks calculated and dubious. It looks like powerful people are playing the privacy angles, all in the name of making sure UW Athletics runs at optimal speed.
UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said he isn't worried about how it looks to us.
"I know the facts," he said. "We're not making the decision (based) on timing or concerned about how it appears. We're doing what we think is right and what we think is fair for the kid."
Other conclusions could be reached based on a pattern that has emerged since last fall.
•
Linebacker Elijah Hodge was arrested Sept. 19 for operating a motor vehicle, a scooter, without the owner's consent. He was suspended by the school two days later and reinstated in time for a Big Ten Conference game Sept. 23 at Michigan.
UW coach Bret Bielema was so certain Hodge, a key backup, would be cleared that Hodge, though still suspended, made the trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., and eventually played.
• Cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu was arrested Nov. 25 in DeKalb, Ill., and charged with residential burglary and criminal trespass.
He was suspended by the school Dec. 1 and reinstated Dec. 15.
Ikegwuonu missed practices leading up to the Capital One Bowl, but the first-team, All-Big Ten selection also had about two weeks of repetitions when workouts were heightened and the game plan was installed for what would be a 17-14 win over Arkansas.
•
Smith was arrested July 14 and tentatively charged with robbery, false imprisonment and battery.
An important backup, he was suspended July 18 and reinstated in time for the first day of preseason drills. None of the three cases had been resolved in the courts when the players were reinstated.
Those involving Ikegwuonu and Smith are pending. No charges were filed against Hodge due to lack of evidence.
Alvarez, UW Athletic Board chair Walter Dickey, Casey Nagy of the chancellor's office and a UW Athletic Board member decide if the discipline policy has been violated and if reinstatement is warranted based on information gathered by the school.
"I think people are very quick — very, very quick — to suspend, punish, do this and that when in many cases — and it's proven out — that it doesn't warrant that," Alvarez said. "People have to trust us."
Maybe it's all coincidence. Maybe this process is pure and reasoned.
But that's not how it looks from here.
