About an hour ago, I caught up with Bob Podkaminer - one of the biggest rules experts in the sport of track and field - to talk him about how Alice Schmidt was placed in today's women's 1,500 final.
I had sent Mr. Podkaminer an email yesterday and he wrote back with his phone # and today he was gracious enough talk to me about the Alice Schmidt situation.
Podkaminer, the NCAA track and field secretary-rules editor, said he wasn't involved in the Schmidt decision himself but explained how the process works.
I started off my call by telling him that logically it didn't make sense to LetsRun.com that Schmidt would be in the final after the automatic qualifier Gabriele Anderson was re-instated. We were having trouble understanding the decision from a logical perspective.
Podkaminer was quick to tell me that it wasn't necessarily a case of logic or sense - a ruling by the Jury of Appeals is final for any and all reasons or lack thereof.
"I can tell you whether it makes sense or doesn't make sense - whether this was logical or not logical - isn't the question to be answered. The Jury of Appeals for whatever reason indicated that the DQ should be withdrawn and 13 should be advanced to the final," said Podkaminer who went on to tell us a story about a past decision by a Jury of Appeals at the 1987 World Indoor championships.
Podkaminer told me that back in 1987 at the World Indoor championships there was an issue about a disqualification or disqualifications for lane violation(s) in the men's 400. Podkaminer said the DQ(s) were appealed and the Jury of Appeals wrote on their decision form something to the effect of: DQ reversed because "a gentleman" would never make such a call in the first place.
Podkaminer's point was that logic doesn't have to be part of the Jury's thought process. They can basically rule whatever they want and their decision is final.
He said they can use "whatever thought processes they want including political thoughts" and said there is no way to know if political thoughts played a role in their decision here.
"For whatever reason, they decided 13 people are in the final (and that's it)."