Every once in a while, you step back and look at something and think, "Gee, that isn't very fair." A good example would be if you were to see Shaquille O'Neal go one-on-one against a first grader, or A-Rod winning the lottery.

The sporting world collectively had one of those moments this past week when the NCAA levied punishments for academic underachievement. Almost no big name schools were penalized, as the only power conference program to lose any scholarships in football or basketball was DePaul, which will now have one less hoops recruit next fall.

While that in itself might seem a bit unfair, that isn't even the worst of it.

The most heavily penalized university in all the land was Temple, who will lose NINE football scholarships for next season.

Now, if that isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is.

We are talking about a Temple football team that last year set the benchmark for dreadfulness. First off, they went 0-11, the second worst record in the nation last year, behind only 0-12 New Mexico State.

The Owls fell three points shy of giving up 500 points in 11 games and were outscored by 383 points on the season, losing by an average just under 36 points a contest. Five times they gave up 50 points or more.

Their starting quarterback, Mike McGann had a passing touchdown-to-interception ratio of 3-to-13, while the running game was just as inept averaging 2.4 yards per carry.

Now, fresh off one of the worst seasons in college football history, Temple will now have to try and make the jump from cataclysmic terribleness to respectably awful shorthanded nine scholarships. New Owl head coach Al Golden might soon look to take a job that is more enticing for his career, like coaching a Pop Warner team in Albuquerque.

The reason that Temple has been docked the maximum nine scholarships is because of the new NCAA Academic Progress Ratings that were only instituted a year ago.

The system rates each NCAA sport at every school academically, with a perfect score being 1000. Any score below 925 will result in some sort of penalty, most likely a lost scholarship. The Temple football program received a score of 837, not letting a little thing like the season ending get in the way of finding another way to be blown out.

Basically, according to the APR, not only was Temple the worst team on the field last year, but they were the worst team in the classroom as well. In short, there is no comprehendible way that Temple could've fielded a worse football team in 2006, as they failed with flying colors across the board.

What did they do, recruit some of the "goons" that Temple basketball coach John Cheney didn't have room for on his roster?

Like I said earlier, it just doesn't seem fair. Taking away scholarships from Temple is like putting a blindfold on a bad dart thrower, or stealing a shopping cart from a bum.

While the NCAA is at it, why don't they just toss those scholarships over to Texas and USC, and become the anti-Robin Hood of college football, robbing from the poor and giving to the teams that could play their respective spring games with crystal national championship footballs.

And don't expect the road to be getting any easier for the Owls either. The NCAA has announced that the penalties will progressively become more and more severe every year, so even if Temple does improve significantly academically this fall, they could still lose another nine scholarships.

By the 2008-2009 season the NCAA is even threatening that teams that have been repeat offenders in the APR program could even face suspensions for college postseason games and tournaments. Not that Temple football would be the least bit bothered by such a sanction, seeing as they have been all but banned from bowl competition throughout their history. The Owls have been to one bowl game in the last 71 years: the 1979 Garden State Bowl.

With the loss of nine more scholarships this season, one bowl in the last 72, heck 82 years seems like a better bet than ever.