Should Duke Be Stripped of the 2010 National Title?

But unfortunately due to the actions of former Duke forward Lance Thomas, the NCAA is investigating the circumstances surrounding the reasons why the former McDonald’s All American is being sued by a New York jewelry firm for non payment of nearly $100,000 worth of jewelry he purchased during his senior season in ’09-’10.

According to reports, Thomas made an initial $30,000 down payment and recieved more than $67,000 in credit but never returned to pay off the balance owed for 5 pieces of custom jewelry.

Thomas was a highly recruited high school player out of New Jersey that committed to Duke over several other elite level Division I programs like Connecticut, Arizona, and Florida.

He was a key cog in Duke’s success during the late 2000’s alongside Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, and big man Brian Zoubek, even earning Co-Captain honors along with Sheyer on the 2010 Championship squad.  Thomas went undrafted and has since bounced around between the Austin Toros of the NBDL and the New Orleans Hornets.

Here’s the official report of the lawsuit from Associated Press:

“A starter on Duke’s 2010 national championship team purchased nearly $100,000 in custom jewelry that season from a New York firm that caters to professional athletes and is now suing him for failing to pay the balance of what he owes. Lance Thomas purchased five pieces of diamond jewelry at a cost of $97,800 on Dec. 21, 2009, in the middle of his senior season, according the lawsuit. Documents included with the suit indicate he made a $30,000 down payment and received $67,800 in credit from the firm, the balance that remains unpaid.”

NCAA rules regarding amateurism clearly prohibit athletes from receiving benefits that aren’t available to all students.  In essence, although details have come to light 2 years later, Thomas was and should be considered an ineligible player during the ’09-’10 season.

In a similar case but different circumstances back in 2009, it was revealed that then University of Memphis guard Derrick Rose had a friend take the SAT’s for him in HS making his score “invalidated”, effectively making him retroactively ineligible to play for Memphis. As a result, the NCAA vacated Memphis’s entire 2007–08 season.

The NCAA also comes under a lot of pressure here as well as they recently have taken tons of criticism for finding no wrongdoing in the Julius Peppers academic scandal while at UNC.  Currently an NFL star, Peppers was once a 2 sport athlete for the Tarheels on the gridiron and the hardwood and according to a recently discovered transcript, received D’s and F’s in 11 of 27 courses while in school from ’99-’02 but was always allowed to play.

Should Duke be stripped of the 2010 National Championship?