While the others have to stand the line.... can't imagine how that would breed animosity...
So . . . the first question should be "
Why is your performance so bad you have accumulated enough demerits to have to march tours?" Especially if we are talking about the upperclassmen. Maybe those are the type of folks I was talking about up above . . you know . . the ones that try to scrape by, by just doing the minimum, try to act cool by rebelling against "the system", play the game and then complain when they get caught. Yep -- those of are the folks whose opinions should count . . .
NCAA Penalty Tours consist of a supervised study period vice marching with a rifle.
What zrxkuma says here is correct for VMI NCAA athletes that are "in season". If their sport is "off season," they get to march tours just like everyone else.
What I have seen at VMI is that accumulation of demerits for the freshmen (the Rats) can be a bit "ticky tack" -- all a part of the "Rat Line experience" and not all that unusual to have to march some tours. DS had to march some along with his room mates for something that happened while he was "in season," but the punishment wasn't awarded until he was "off season." He wasn't even a participant in the "offense" since he was at practice, but he took the punishment and marched the tours anyway. Good way to support your BRs.
HOWEVER, if the situation is the NCAA athlete is always breaking rules and always in trouble . . . it is likely the NCAA coach will take action. Saw it last year where the new football coach kicked a few boys off the team just as the season was starting. At least one was disenrolled. One left the school on their own I think. Another one took his punishment and appears to have changed his ways, and has earned his way back on to the team for this coming season.
There were several events he was blocked from doing due to being NCAA. He considered this counter to the team building effort of the RAT Line.
As zrhkuma says, there are things NCAA athletes don't get to do when "in season". For instance, for the fall Army ROTC training exercise, the football athletes didn't get to participate in the Blackhawk helicopter deployment. The exercise is a big deal for the VMI AROTC freshmen, but the fall season NCAA athletes had to miss out on the helicopter rides for their sport.
Guard duty is an example of a duty NCAA athletes don't have to perform while "in season", but when "off season" they then pull their fair share. Seems like those that make the guard schedule make it all come out close to even. DS even volunteered to take the last guard shift for one of his BRs on the last day before Spring Break started so his BR could leave earlier since he had farther to travel to get home.
How this fact is perceived by their BR's depends partly on the individual NCAA Cadets as well as how their absence is presented by the Cadet leadership.
I think zrhkuma is spot on here.
The amount of effort required to stay in an NCAA activity, maintain your contractual obligations if you're ROTC, comply with the remaining Cadet requirements you have and still manage to actually succeeded in a major with any difficulty is staggering.
Amen