On Wednesday, Alabama suspended All-American safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix for an unspecified period for an unspecified violation of team rules. On Thursday, Bama placed assistant strength coach Cory Harris on adminstrative for -- this from the TideSports.com report by Tommy Deas and Aaron Suttle -- "providing impermissible benefits to (Clinton-Dix)."

From TideSports: "Harris made a short-term loan to Clinton-Dix in an amount less than $500 at some point in the summer, an apparent violation of NCAA Bylaw 16.11.2.2."

Matt Scalici of Al.com reports: "At least two NCAA bylaw experts say any potential penalties Alabama safety HaHa Clinton-Dix faces won't likely be far-reaching."

But here we ask: How far-reaching does a penalty need to be if the NCAA determines that Clinton-Dix should have been ruled ineligible before this week? The same NCAA decided that Georgia Tech should have withheld Demaryius Thomas from three games at the end of the 2009 season, and the one game of those three that Tech won -- the ACC championship over Clemson -- was forfeited and the title vacated.

If the NCAA can prove Alabama knew a month ago that Clinton-Dix might have taken money from Harris, Alabama's victories over Texas A&M and Ole Miss could be subject to forfeit. If the NCAA can prove such a case before Dec. 7 -- the date of the SEC championship in the Dome -- the team everyone expects to represent the SEC West mightn't be allowed to represent the SEC West.

(It would be just like the NCAA to make Alabama forfeit a game in which A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was allowed to participate -- two weeks after serving his 30-minute suspension against Rice.)

As the Tech-Thomas case proved, the NCAA comes down hardest on schools that allow a player whose eligibility is in question to play. (That's why Georgia held out A.J. Green for the first game of the 2010 season even though the NCAA hadn't ruled yet.) So far, nothing suggests that Alabama knew or should have known anything about Clinton-Dix before this week -- but you never know what will happen if the NCAA comes sniffing.

And this case has the potential to be messier than the typical player-takes-money-from-agent stuff. This is player-takes-money-from-a-staffer. Scalici quotes John Infante, a former compliance official, as saying: "From the coach's perspective, it sounds like a mini-John Blake."

John Blake was the assistant coach on Butch Davis' North Carolina state who was proved to have accepted money from agents to act as a conduit. Blake was subsequently assessed a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA, which is serious stuff. (It means any school seeking to hire Blake over those three years would have to show cause why he should be allowed to resume coaching at an NCAA member institution.)

The Blake case helped bring down the Davis regime in Chapel Hill. Nothing suggests that matters in Tuscaloosa are nearly so widespread, but we say again: When the NCAA comes calling, anything can happen. Ask Georgia Tech. A $312 gift of clothing -- clothing later returned, by the way -- made a championship vanish.

As you might know, Alabama plays Georgia State on Saturday. Is Clinton-Dix's suspension the break the 0-4 Panthers required?

Yes, yes. I'm kidding.