SWAC Smacks Grambling with Fine For Skipping Jackson St Game

We told you a few weeks ago that someone was going to have to pay the price when Grambling State players decided to forfeit their game against Jackson State due to issues with the Grambling administration.

And we all knew it was going to be Grambling.

Jackson State was gearing up to sue the Grambling -- both teams are the Tigers -- for skipping it. They were justifiably steamed; among other reasons, that was supposed to be Jackson Stat's homecoming game. So that state of affairs wasn't too cool for their bottom line, increasing the irony of the forfeit. After all, the Grambling players were revolting because their school's bottom line was what led to their own adverse conditions.

Well, now it's been announced that the Southwestern Athletic Conference took another chunk out of Grambling's coffers.

The SWAC fined them $20,000 for the no-show against Jackson State, and they have to play at JSU for the next three years, allowing them to recover the gate and game revenues they just lost.

"As far as the fine for Grambling State and subsequent payment to Jackson State, we believe that it is the right thing to do from a conference standpoint," SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp said, according to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

It might be the right thing to do in their eyes, but it's still a blow to a struggling athletic department that couldn't even afford to give players meals on road trips. And yet, it's a fair blow. Grambling may well be in a state of hurt, but they were wrong to impose similar pain on an innocent party. The school needs to solve its own problems, and if that means going activist on the scrooges at the state capital in Baton Rouge, so be it.

Time will tell if this will be enough for Jackson State. Will they continue to talk lawsuit? My guess is that consideration is why the SWAC hit GSU. They didn't want to be named as a defendant.

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