The NCAA exists tenuously as a controlling entity in college athletics, but there it remains anyway, for reasons that elude me. I'm sure there are some good ones. Also inertia. But as long as the organization continues to make a show of serious and systematic enforcement of rules violations, and keeps picking leverage from its vast leverage tree orchard (this is a great time of year for leverage), I suppose this theoretical penalty matrix business bears watching.
The matrix--which you can see in PDF form here--attempts to add some additional structure to what has been a rather helter-skelter application of penalties since the beginning of time. Though I still am not sure exactly which infractions result in a paddlin'.
The matrix proposes far more significant penalties for violations by member institutions, which is illustrated by the side-by-side comparison of the penalties levied on Southern Cal and the penalties that would have been levied had the matrix been in effect. (See the link in the first paragraph.) Both the football and basketball programs would have faced scholarship reductions up to 50%, and a massive cut in recruiting activities. And fines.