In the era of Winston Jamison I feel it important that you guys know who you're facing on Saturday.

Dan Enos, the CMU football coach is on the hotseat. He started fast with a win over Purdue, and much of that success was do to a stellar performance by Thomas Rawls, their transfer running back.

Rawls is a 5th year senior, who left UM and came to CMU. In an interview with his mother she pointed out how hard Thomas had to work to graduate from UM so he could transfer and play immediately at CMU. She pointed out that Thomas completed 43 credit hours in 3 months. Not sure how you do that.

In May Rawls was at a casino in Mt. Pleasant. He stole a woman's purse, took her credit cards, and went on a spending spree. He was caught and charged with three felonies. He enrolled at CMU, and did not tell CMU's coach that he was awaiting trial on these felony charges. After two games Rawls finally told his coach, because he was scheduled for trial the following Tuesday.

Rawls went to trial and plea bargained down to one count of felony larceny. The judge convicted him of a High Court Misdemeanor, which carries the same sentence as a felony (up to two years in prison). The state legislature came up with this "felony light" name so that the felon can be sentenced to a felony but not have to check the "felony box" on every job application he ever fills out.

The day after Rawls was convicted of a felony the CMU football coach reinstated him. This, in spite of the fact that in three weeks he will be sentenced, and that could be the end of his career. Two other CMU players were convicted of felonies earlier this year and were dismissed from the team, but neither were significant contributors like Rawls.

So in a nutshell, CMU's biggest offensive weapon, who is basically a 1 year rent a player from UM, was convicted of a felony two weeks ago, and was welcomed back by a desperate coach the following day.

The MAC is a true student athlete conference and doesn't need to be putting recently convicted felons who are awaiting sentencing out on the field.

You won't hear about this because the MAC isn't the SEC or the Pig10, and the media doesn't care about anything not P5. To me at least this is unacceptable in this league, and people should know about it, which is why I'm bringing it to your attention. If you have concerns, a short email to MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbach will at least let them know that MAC fans are aware of this, and feel it is a black eye on the league.

No, I'm actually a WMU alum. I put this out there because reinstating Rawls the day after he was convicted simply smells of desperation, and looks bad on the league. Admittedly, I am not a CMU fan, as they're our rivals, but this simply smells of bad, and needs to be out there.

It's not like this is new at CMU. During the Kelly era 7 CMU football players kicked a guy to death in a bar fight. It was tried on Court TV. Like everything in the MAC, the media was more concerned about free tatoos at OSU than about MAC players murdering someone. Nobody talked (snitched), and the witnesses couldn't specifically identify each player. The plea bargained to a lesser charge, and NO ONE EVER HEARD ABOUT IT. They were dismissed from the program after the trial.

Anyhow, I'm not fond of the idea of having a convicted felon on ESPN running up yardage and getting accolades, so I'm putting the info out there. You guys have a great journalism school. Might be an interesting story to put out there.

Very sad story. This young man is being exploited by those who choose not to confront his negative behavior. Pressure to win makes for very short sighted decisions.
In the long run not in anyones best interest to put football first.

Having since learned this fan is actually an alum of an in-state rival, I can tell you that YES I would absolutely go to opposing message boards to talk bad about an in-state rival and their criminal players.

While my first thought would be to trash the Miami program, to their credit they aren't usually the in-state rival with the sketchiest players. In my mind, that honor falls to Akron or Kent on the hardwood.

I think Chipdip's initial post was disingenuous for not identifying him/herself as a WMU grad and using a handle that gave many the impression he/she is connected to CMU. That said, I agree with Chip -- and many others, including the sportswriter for the Mt. Pleasant newspaper -- that they brought Rawls back too soon. The guy pleaded guilty; he's a criminal. That alone should cost him some games, if not his schollie (ala the O$U idiot who ran onto the field last Saturday). But CMU has decided to reward him for his plea bargain. Not classy at all. Writing the MAC office likely won't help. But raising a stink in the media might; that made Goodell wake up on domestic violence.

Chip, if you are really serious about this, you should contact the Kalamazoo or Detroit media or somebody like ESPN and tell them they're missing the story. Someone at the Michigan legislature also might be interested, especially during an election year. Show them this story from Mt. Pleasant: http://www.themorningsun.com/sports/20140928/nate-schneid....

BTW, you should change the subject line and your original post. The plea brought it down to a misdemeanor. http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/college/2.../

Sounds a lot like what was happening at Oklahoma State in that SI article last year. If you play well, they make exceptions. If not, good luck to you.

And this is for a one year player! That's what baffles me. It's not like CMU is expecting to have a 12-0 season and possible lucrative bowl game as the best G5 team. They will probably go anywhere from 5-7 to 8-4 with him or without him.

My guess is Enos did this to save his job. The more wins he gets this year, the less likely he is to get fired. Just incredible.

You say CMU has handled it.

Yes, they handled it by reinstating him IMMEDIATELY after he plea bargained 3 felony charges down to 1 felony larceny charge. It's horrible precedent to set, it basically enables bad behavior.

Yes, he did plea bargain the 3 felonies down to a High Court Misdemeanor. Felony larceny and a High Court Misdemeanor are both punishable by up to 2 years in prison. The court does this as a consideration, so that a young man starting out in life doesn't have to check the "have you ever been convicted of a felony box" on every job application they fill out. But technically, still a felony.

Lots of teams in this league have players with legal issues, WMU included. What they haven't done is reinstate them the day after their conviction without adding a consequence.

I could care less about the perception of putting this news out there for other teams fans to digest. When you start to accept bad behavior it just perpetuates more of it.

If it is "technically a felony", then he loses his right to vote, and he has to check the "have you ever been convicted of a felony" box. If it is not "technically a felony", then he doesn't.

So why are you coming here to whine and moan about it?? Did Rawls also kick your dog too? Is your neighbor watering his lawn during the sprinkler ban? Jeez. Go cry about it over on a WMU board where people actually care. Or stand on the front steps of the courthouse in Mt Pleasant and vent about it. And here I thought they only worried about where they are going to place the next set of boat oars in Kalamazoo.

Why wouldn't he go as many places as he could to raise awareness? In the wake of all the things going on with football and bad sentencing this should be a major story. If you are about to be sentenced to prison you shouldn't be playing in a football game a week before. It's that simple.

It's not like they went out and bought hundreds in electronics or something. According to the report, they bought some subs and about $30 in gas, I think, and that was it. Maybe they got caught before they could buy more, but they look at what they did buy. It was probably $50 or less, so sending him to the slammer isn't likely. What's working against him is his denials that he did anything when the video shows him doing it. If he has an attorney that's halfway decent he'll fess up and likely get probation. Still, it would've been good if Enos would sit him until the legal stuff works out, but when you've been on the hotseat for two or three years the bar for "the right thing" tends to drop.

OK, thanks. If ~$100 was what was involved, and it was a first offense, it isn't surprising that the prosecutors agreed to reduce it to a misdemeanor, and you're probably right that jail time isn't likely.