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Georgia men's basketball coach Dennis Felton kicked his leading scorer, Takais Brown, off the team for an undisclosed violation of team policies. It's a big loss for Georgia, which had already suspended Brown and two teammates, Mike Mercer and Albert Jackson, for violating Georgia athletic department policy.

But the most fascinating thing about the story is this: One of the punishments that had previously been meted out against the basketball players was a $10 fine every time they had an unexcused absence from a class or an academic appointment. It's a policy Georgia enacted early this year.

It is also utterly ridiculous. These are supposed to be amateur athletes. How can you take money away from amateurs? How is this even enforced? Does the player write a check to the school for every $10 fine? I assume the $10 is taken out of the room and board money given to the players, but room and board money is supposed to be for, you know, room and board. It's not supposed to be payment because these players are supposed to be amateurs. And how can you take money from someone you're not paying?

Georgia seems to be strengthening its academic standards after the embarrassment that was the Jim Harrick era. If kicking Brown off the team was part of that effort, good for Georgia. But lose the $10 fines.