Dick Vitale criticizes NCAA for harsh punishment against Florida State freshman Baba Miller

Last week, the NCAA announced it will uphold Florida State freshman Baba Miller’s suspension after receiving travel from Spain to the United States. The NCAA made that decision even though Miller and his family paid back the dues — and that’s why ESPN’s Dick Vitale had some harsh criticism for that penalty.

Vitale took to Twitter to hammer the NCAA over the decision to deny Miller’s waiver, which means Miller must sit out 50% of Florida State’s schedule this year. As a result, he’ll miss the first 16 games of his freshman campaign, which has been the brunt of plenty of criticism since the announcement.

“I hate to see an athlete penalized UNFAIRLY like @FSUHoops’s BABA MILLER,” Vitale wrote. “It is ABSURD what the @NCAA has done to Baba especially in the era that exists. He came to train in USA from Spain & his parents paid back the expenses but the @NCAA still penalized him.”

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Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton also weighed in on the NCAA’s decision, telling The Jeff Cameron Show from On3’s Warchant he’s frustrated with the NCAA’s educational process.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the job the NCAA has done over the years,” Hamilton said, via Warchant’s Tom Lang. “They have a very difficult challenge of dealing with all of the different sports, internationally and domestically. … But I do have some concerns. I’m disappointed about this because I can’t find any source of information that lets me know that they have had an extensive educational program to educate people internationally as to what the do’s and don’ts are. So we’re holding this young man accountable for what his family does not know.

“There was no NCAA (rule) book for them to look at; they didn’t even know anyone who has an NCAA book. … It’s hard for me to accept that they’re holding a youngster accountable for what they have not been exposed to.”

Miller was a highly touted recruit out of Spain, coming in as a four-star recruit and the No. 86-ranked player from the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was part of an impressive recruiting class by coach Leonard Hamilton, which ranked No. 34 in the country, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking.