Congratulations to the NCAA for another brilliant decision this past week.

By the way, what does that extra ‘A’ stand for? Asinine? Apathetic? Atrocious?

You’ll have to bear with me here folks. As a Notre Dame fan, I’m about to do something that’s hard for me: defend someone from USC. Mom, if you’re reading this, please don’t tell Grandma. I’m so ashamed.

It’s not that I feel Mike Williams should face no repercussions for attempting to leave school early – he should. It’s not that the NCAA acted outside the bounds of its authority – it didn’t.

No, what bothers me is that a 20-year-old kid who did nothing but follow the rules laid out before him is now being punished for being a 20-year-old kid who did nothing but follow the rules laid out before him.

For those who may not know exactly what I am talking about, let me elaborate a little. Mike Williams was a star wide receiver for the USC football team, who was refused reinstatement by the NCAA after becoming ineligible for the NFL draft.

Still don’t follow? Let’s play a little game of make-believe then, okay?

Let’s say you’re a promising young athlete, and you’ve just come off your second straight incredible season of intercollegiate racquetball. Why racquetball? Well, who doesn’t love racquetball?

Each season your skills have progressed to a higher level, and you just wrapped up a national championship season.

The future is bright for you, my friend; so bright, in fact, that you are the odds-on favorite to win the Lenny Hartland Trophy, collegiate racquetball’s most prestigious award.

At the moment, dreams of the professional racquetball circuit are just that, dreams and nothing more, for you know of the International Racquetball Tour’s strict rules regarding underclassmen declaring for the draft: you must be three years removed from your high school graduation. This is your happy existence until, lo and behold, Federal Courts rule in favor of a suit challenging eligibility rules, you are now eligible to declare for the IRT draft.

The decision is an excruciating one; you love Loyola and its world-class racquetball facilities, but, at the same time, the lure of the IRT and its fast-paced lifestyle is almost too much – the fast cars, the chicks, the extra milk money.

So you decide, playing entirely by the rules, to declare for the draft.

A month later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturns the ruling. You are no longer eligible for the glories of the IRT – the women, the fast cars, the devil-may-care lifestyle and the extra calcium.

You, sir, are in limbo.

So what do you do?

The only natural thing: you follow due process and attempt to return to Loyola. You take summer classes to make up for the hours you lost last spring when you withdrew from enrollment.

You actually make progress; your grades are decent enough to show that you are, in good faith, committed to returning to the life of “Scholar Athlete.” Loyola is behind you 100 percent and your sport’s governing body offers a faint glimmer of hope that burns all summer long by allowing you to apply for reinstatement in April.

Finally, come the end of August, just two days away from the first game of the season, the NCAA declares you ineligible. What is their reasoning, you ask?

Hiring an agent and declaring for the draft apparently made you the Great Satan of intercollegiate athletics, even though you were completely within your legal right to do so.

Even though you did everything asked of you in order to try to return. Even though you jumped through hoops for months just to make the NCAA happy.

You’re not some sort of evil monster. You’re just a kid with promising talent who, on a hunch, did what any young kid with promising talent would do.

And yet, you’re no good. You’re different. You can’t play ball in the NCAA anymore.

They don’t like your kind.

So, now, I pose this question to you: don’t you feel completely hosed? Imagine how Mike Williams must feel.

It’s a shame that the NCAA can’t see beyond its own veil of “integrity.” What are we supposed to make of an organization that is supposed to look out for the best interests of its student athletes and then acts in the exact opposite manner?

The NCAA has done more than just damage Mike Williams’ education and career. They’ve kicked themselves in the teeth by once again acting the fool in the public eye.

Then again, what do I know? The NCAA could be right about Mike Williams.

After all, he is a damned, dirty Trojan.