AlthoughBrian Kellywith theto vacate wins from the 2012 and 2013 football seasons, Notre Dame's will likely be unsucce sful.The i sue isn't whether the institution and its storied football program acted improperly. The i sue is whether the panel exceeded its authority when it decided a vacation of wins was appropriate considering no misconduct by Notre Dame was found.MORE: Notre Dame's first a sertion was the vacation ofwins wasn't required under NCAA legislation. While Mike Montgomery Jersey they are correct in this a sertion, NCAA legislation provides the panel the authority to prescribe additional penalties, beyond the mandatory core penalties, where nece sary. This includes the ability to prescribe the vacation of records in contests where a student-athlete competed while ineligible, including the vacation of team records and performances.Additionally, if Notre Addison Russell Jersey Dame were to argue the new enforcement proce s, which was enacted on Aug. 1, 2013, was inapplicable because some of the violations occurred before this date, the result would be the same. Specifically, the old system identified thevacation of wins as appropriate when ineligible competition occurred as a result of academic violations under Bylaw 19.5.2.Because the panel had the authority prescribe a vacation of any wins where an ineligiblestudent-athlete competed, the question then turns to whether the vacation was exce sive in light of the panel's determination that no misconduct occurredbeyond the actions of the former student athletic trainer and involved football student-athletes. Although Cole Hamels Jersey Notre Dame a serts this decision was exce sive and without precedent, a 2011 East Carolina University case will continue to prove difficult for the Irish.BENDER: In the ECU case, four baseball student-athletes and one womens tennis student-athlete, who worked as an English tutor in the athletics department, were involved in academic fraud. The Committee on Infractions found the four baseball student-athletes submitted work completed by the womens tennis student-athlete as their own. While the committee mitigated ECU's penalties, noting that the institution had acted appropriately at all phases before and during the investigation despite the individual actions of the involved parties," the committee still determined a vacation of wins and records was appropriate.The committee reasoned that the institution bears some responsibility for the conduct of the academic tutor working in athletics. The vacation of wins was appropriate because the ECU student-athletes had received fraudulent credit for work not completed during their time as student-athletes. These student-athletes were certified as eligible based on the fraudulent credits, which ultimately allowed them Ben Zobrist Jersey to participate while ineligible.The panel found no distinction in Notre Dame's case. The facts still included a student athletics employee, this time a student athletic trainer, providing student-athletes with impermi sible academic benefits which caused them to compete while ineligible.Notre Dame now has until Dec. 6 15days from the release of the public report to formally file its appeal.Justin P. Sievert, Esq., is the founder/principal of Sievert Collegiate Consulting, a profe sor of sports law Danny Hultzen Jersey at the University of Tenne see,and a contributing writer on sports law and sports busine s i sues for Sporting News. He is an attorney licensed to practice in Tenne see, North Carolina and Florida and has focused his practice on higher education and sports law. Justin has a Bachelorof Arts degreefrom Union College (NY), a master's degree in education from St. Lawrence University and a juris doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Miami (Fla.).