Skip to main content

Could Have Been Worse for Colgate RB Scott

It's been a tumultuous offseason for Colgate fans who have been twisting in the wind regarding the situation involving star rising senior RB Jordan Scott (and WR David Morgan). After reporting that the players were suspended in December for a burglary charge, the state's and school's punishments for the two athlete's infractions were squeaked into a light July news cycle yesterday - and it's caused a firestorm of discussion amongst Colgate fans.

Two Colgate football players are each serving 21 days in jail on charges of trespassing at a dorm room last December.

Running back Jordan Scott and wide receiver David Morgan began serving the time at the Madison County jail last week after each agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of second-degree criminal trespass, said Hamilton village Justice Arnold Fisher. They will each serve a year of probation, too, Fisher said.

Each student was originally charged with second-degree burglary, a felony.

Looking over the NY penal code, the definition of second-degree burglary that applies here is:
A person is guilty of burglary in the second degree when he knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a building with intent to commit a crime therein, and when:

2. The building is a dwelling.

Since Scott basically admitted he was there to steal money and admitted as much, the legal aspect of this seems cut-and-dry. Their only option (probably) was to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree criminal trespass.

I am no a legal expert by any stretch, but 21 days in jail seems like a long time to me considering their crime was a misdemeanor (not to mention one year of probation). I don't know the answer to this, but I wonder - how many other folks are spending that much hard time on that specific charge? Not many, I'd bet.

It's not the legal response, however, that is raising hackles. It's the response from Colgate itself:
The two players will remain students at Colgate, but will be suspended for one game at the beginning of the season, said college spokesman Charlie Melichar.
It certainly could have been worse for both athletes. They could have been kicked out of the university, kept as students but kicked off the team or suspended for half the season - but coach Biddle and the athletic department chose instead to suspend them for only one game.

Judging by the message board chatter, many Colgate fans find this surprisingly light - especially considering that the NY justice system came down hard on these two kids by any measure. It's confusing, and Colgate fans and Patriot League fans don't really know what to make of it. Was it just youthful indiscretion? One stupid thing they did? Or are Scott and Morgan really bad people? Was Colgate too lenient? Was the NY justice system too harsh?Are the athletes getting preferential treatment?

The message could be: Colgate only cares about winning, while the NY police are rightfully throwing the book at them. Or it could be: Colgate is taking appropriate action, while the NY police are throwing the book at Mr. Scott to make an example of Colgate football.

Who's right? I was not there and I don't pretend to know, but I have my own take on this.

Coach Biddle seems be a stand-up guy who has firm control of his team. His kids persist and his kids graduate as Colgate's APR numbers show. The Raiders haven't had a culture of disciplinary problems in his tenure as head football coach, which will enter its 12th year in 2008. As a matter of fact, Biddle seems to run a pretty tight ship as far as I can tell.

I can't see coach Biddle letting an athlete "off the hook" if he really thought what had happened was a serious situation. I also could easily see coach Biddle suspending him for the year if that was the right thing to do.

Coach Biddle has had a history of doing right by athletes. He personally told RB Jamaal Branch to take a year off to figure out his life before Branch returned to the team in 2003 to lead the Raiders to the I-AA National Championship game. That to me doesn't sound like a guy who is out there to win at all costs. In that situation, he could have easily lost their best player.

My instincts are to give coach Biddle the benefit of the doubt in this situation. He has been at Colgate an awful long time and (to me) developed a reputation as a coach in good standing ethically - and I say this as a Lehigh fan.

I think coach Biddle suggested the punishment he thought best, in regards to his view of the circumstances and without regard to Colgate's football chances in 2008. I think he's earned that much.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nicely put and fair and balanced. Nice to see that someone who is by no means a Raider fan, as I am, can be rational and just in their opinion. Too much hysteria and stupidity on some of these chat boards.
Well done,
the last indian
Anonymous said…
I think its great that he should suspend them for the almighty Stony Brook. Yea hes a stand up guy without any consideration for them winning or losing.
Anonymous said…
Alot of truly false and negative things have been said on these lehigh message boards. This is by far the fairest. First look at the track record of colgate and their discinplinary problems. How many times does it really get taken outside of the school and to the police? Usually schools handle these problems in house, especially if no one was hurt and nothing was taken. Furthermore the head of the campus safety at Colgate, who had been there for over 15yrs, who made the call to take it outside of the university, is no longer there. 15yrs and just up and quit or leave? 1 DA for Madison county got promoted during the case and left without making a decision. The interim DA is running in the upcoming election for DA in Madison county, where Colgate is. Jail time and probation for a kid who has no record of any wrong doing ever in his life? And after Jail, probation, and team suspension, he misses a game that directly effects the numbers he might need for his future in football. Colgate did not kick him out because far worse things have been done by students there. I dont see nor can imagine how he's getting special treatment. Someone does not like this kid. Alot of things are left out this puzzle.
Anonymous said…
21 days is light? These 2 hoodlums broke into the girls dorm room in the dark of the night, all dressed in black in order to steal. Jordan has a full ride scholarship - most kids there pay the full $50,000 PER YEAR! He pays NOTHING, and still feels the need to steal from his fellow students. One of the girls is so traumatized that she is unable to return to school. Where is the justice for her? These 2 should be incarcerated and have their legs broken!
Anonymous said…
The girls are in school. There are no scholarships for Patriot league football players. Please speak on things you absolutely know... Oh and Mr. Scott is leading the nation in rushing and is featured in the NY Times and Washington Times.

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.