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" In my other life, I occasionally get a little itchy about the steady militarization of all our major sporty spectacles. But, I have to admit, if the now customary Worship Our Heroes ceremonies can make the NCAA look as stupid as the do today, I&amp;#039;m all for them. By NCAA standards, Steven Rhodes&amp;#039; play at the Marine base counted as &amp;quot;organized competition&amp;quot; because there were game officials, team uniforms and the score was kept. But the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Marine sergeant said the recreational league was nothing close to organized. &amp;quot;Man, it was like intramurals for us,&amp;quot; said the 24-year-old. &amp;quot;There were guys out there anywhere from 18 to 40-something years old. The games were spread out. We once went six weeks between games.&amp;quot; The rule first took shape in 1980, when &amp;quot;participation in organized competition during times spent in the armed services, on official church missions or with recognized foreign aid services of the U.S. government&amp;quot; were exempt from limiting eligibility. But through several revisions and branches of the rule, the clause allowing competition during military service was lost and not carried over into the current bylaws. Daryl Simpson, MTSU&amp;#039;s assistant athletic director/compliance, said he doesn&amp;#039;t believe the NCAA ever intended to penalize military service members. &amp;quot;All this is strictly because of how the bylaw is worded,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;In my opinion, there is no intent of anyone to not allow protection to our U.S. service members.&amp;quot; You&amp;#039;re all idiots and your rules are stupid. Annnnnd, scene!  I just heard Ashleigh Banfield -- She&amp;#039;s alive! -- on CNN talk about how the NCAA&amp;#039;s arcane rulebook is &amp;quot;keeping this hero&amp;quot; from playing. I couldn&amp;#039;t love this more than I do. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19284/death-to-the-ncaa/>