This case stems from NCAA rules that Webber violated as a player from 1991-93. In short, he accepted money from a man named Ed Martin, who doled out cash and gifts to lots of young Detroit players through the years. Only some of them went to Michigan, but it was Michigan that gave Martin comp tickets and access to hotel room blocks.
I have a long-standing opposition to the NCAA rulebook (which isn’t the point of this column) but like the rules or not, there is little doubt they were violated here. Michigan was punished and under the NCAA system that’s fine.
The NCAA vacated the two Final Fours that Webber’s Fab Five reached. The banners commemorating those seasons were taken down. There were other sanctions too, especially since Martin was also involved with other Detroit kids-turned-Wolverines such as Maurice Taylor and the late Robert Traylor.
The most puzzling – and unfortunate – penalty, however, was when the NCAA forced Michigan to “disassociate” itself from Webber and the others for a decade, a term that ended on May 8.