It’s a Good Thing Chip Kelly Has This NFL Job, Because the NCAA Won’t Let Him Work Colleges For Awhile

The NCAA has handed down sanctions against the Oregon football program, the recent fiefdom of now-Eagles coach Chip Kelly. Our sister blog Birds 24/7 brings us the story:

The NCAA today announced sanctions against Oregon for use of a recruiting service provider “who became a representative of the university’s athletics interests, to assist the school with the recruitment of multiple prospective student-athletes.”

Of interest to this crowd is that Chip Kelly was hit with an 18-month show-cause penalty.

What does that mean? If Kelly wants to return to the college ranks within the next 18 months, he and the new school would have to appear before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions and explain why he should be allowed to do so. The school would also have to detail how it planned on monitoring him, and the program would be subject to harsher penalties were he to break the rules again.

Of course, the likelihood is that Kelly sticks with the Eagles for 18 months anyway.

An interesting point: The NCAA doesn’t apparently believe that Kelly himself directly violated the rules. Instead, he “failed to monitor” his own program—which, after all, is the coach’s job.