guncurug: Big East

ESPN Behind Conference Roulette; May Jeopardize Colleges' Tax Exemption

09.21

NCAA: Bring Back the Death Penalty

18.01

Tonight, we have a national championship game that in some sense presents the dilemma facing the NCAA in microcosm. On the one hand, you have UConn, a relative power in the game representing the Big East, a BCS member conference, the best conference in basketball and one that is deep in bed with both ESPN and CBS. It is presided over by a coach who had his hand slapped by the NCAA for "failure to maintain an atmosphere of compliance" earlier this season. The NCAA punished Calhoun for violating one of its core principles - the institution and its leaders are to be held accountable for compliance, i.e. institutional

control - by suspending him for three games NEXT season. We wouldn't want to interfere too much with the TV product that CBS paid billions for now would we?

On the other hand, we have Butler, a supposed mid-major who has had players represented on the Academic All-American team in each of the last four years. The Bulldogs are members of the Horizon Conference, a league without a regular national TV contract and composed of schools that do not play Division I football. There has not been a hint of scandal in Butler's past. Who do you think NCAA President Mark Emmert is secretly rooting for?

Major college athletics is supposed to be about the experience of a student-athlete, with an emphasis on the first part of that hyphenated word. Again, the final game is instructive. While admittedly only a crude measure, the Academic Progress Rate is a standard established by the NCAA to measure schools and administer penalties for failure to encourage sufficient academic progress among their athletes. An APR of 925 is the minimum needed to avoid penalties, which translates into a roughly fifty percent graduation rate; not a particularly tough standard, but the NCAA never sets the bar too high. What about our finalists: UConn, 930, barely over the edge; Butler, 1000, a perfect score, enough said.

The last couple of weeks have not been good ones for the image protectors at the NCAA. We have seen pay for play scandals at both Auburn and Oregon, the participants in last year's BCS National Championship. We have the Jim Tressel saga at perennial power Ohio State, where the head coach not only failed to notify his superiors about violations but actively engaged in covering them up by alerting quarterback Terrell Pryor's "mentor" about them, presumably so he could help the cover up. Of course, there is Tennessee with its twin scandals in men's basketball and football, that have cost basketball coach Bruce Pearl his job, but not until the Vols exited the tournament, and will result in penalties for both programs that have yet to be determined. So far, the reaction of the NCAA to the play for pay revelations coming out of Auburn and Oregon is mostly silence. Won't it be fun if both BCS National Championship Game participants are placed on probation and, heaven forbid, forced to forfeit games from the 2010 season. Oh, and I almost forgot about that tawdry Fiesta Bowl saga which is outside the NCAA's control.

What is going on in collegiate athletics can be traced to one place: NCAA headquarters. The punishment being meted out by the NCAA when it manages to catch rules violators is so disproportionally light in connection to the potential rewards that there is no incentive to comply. First, the chances of actually getting caught aren't too great because the NCAA has a small enforcement staff, and if you do, a few games suspension for a coach or a player is hardly a penalty to be concerned with when the potential payoff is millions of dollars. The incentive for the institution is just as great. Winning football and basketball programs generate millions of dollars that flow back to the institutions. Granted, the immediate dollars the athletic departments generate go to operate the departments, but winning programs create happy alumni who donate more. They also generate favorable publicity for the school and that generates more interest in the school and more applications for admissions. Set against that backdrop, why should a coach comply with the rules he thinks his conference rivals are not obeying?

It's time the NCAA took one of two steps to clean up college athletics. One, and the less drastic of my two suggestions, is to bring back the death penalty. Although it remains on the books, it has not been administered since it was given to SMU. It would seem that the NCAA is now too afraid of the TV networks to hand out the three most meaningful penalties in its arsenal: exclusion from the post-season, exclusion from TV appearances and the death penalty. If you wondering when might be and appropriate time to hand down a death penalty see Auburn, Tennessee, Oregon and Ohio State. UConn probably deserves to be excluded from TV and the tournament for two to three years and Calhoun, the only coach I know whose recruiting was so dirty it inspired a rules change, should be issued a "show cause" order, i.e. demonstrate to the NCAA why he should be allowed to coach. (The reason that D-I schools now play exhibition games against lower division schools and not AAU teams is Jim Calhoun).

The other solution for this mess is just to do away with scholarships altogether. Do you see these kind of scandals in the Ivy League or the Patriot League (okay, some schools in the Patriot League give out scholarships, but still...). You don't see these problems in D-III either. Would some of the players we see now not be able to attend college? Sure, but tell me, does everyone on Auburn's football team or UConn's basketball team really belong in college in the first place? If the NBA and the NFL want minor leagues, let them pay for them like Major League Baseball does. The NBA already has the NBDL - start using it for the players who don't really belong in college. The system we have now prostitutes higher education and demeans the very institutions that participate in it. It's not in the best interest of the institution and it's not in the best interest of most of the athletes to be placed in a situation where the athlete does not really want to be and is unlikely to be academically successful. If there were no athletic scholarships, then the athletes who do participate are students who we are more likely to feel assured want to be students and not stopping at a way station on the way to a pro tryout in order to fulfill some mandatory wait time.

Even if the NCAA is not up to either of these ideas it must take a good hard luck at itself. It is at crossroads and the very nature of college sports is at risk. The business model has been very successful but the public may not want to buy in much longer if game stories continue to be crowded out by scandal stories. As for tonight, well, Go Bulldogs.

Big East

Kentucky Gets Good Return on Highest Recruiting Budget

18.52

Big East

NCAA, UConn, Calhoun and Justice: Where's the Beef

22.17

Today was decision day in Storrs as the NCAA Committee on Infractions handed down its alleged punishment of the UConn men's basketball program and head coach Jim Calhoun for violations of NCAA rules in the recruitment of Nate Miles and for failing to create an atmosphere of compliance. The headline sanctions include the suspension of Calhoun for the first three Big East next season and placing the team on three year's probation. Other penalties include reduction of scholarships from 13 to 12 for three years, limitations on official campus recruiting visits and limiting the number of coaches allowed to recruit off-campus.

UConn and Calhoun should consider themselves lucky. Failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance is one step removed from lack of institutional control, which is the NCAA's least favorite violation. nevertheless, the sanctions will not have any material effect on the way in which UConn conducts its program. Probation is a joke these days since the NCAA has not done anything serious to repeat offenders since it dropped the death penalty on SMU back in the 1980s.

Suspending Calhoun for three Big East games is equally meaningless. First, no one knows what those games will be since the Big East schedule isn't made until the summer. You can be sure that suspension will be taken into account when the UConn portion of the schedule is made up . The Huskies are not barred from the postseason, nor are they barred from any television appearances, not even non-conference games. Without hitting a program where it counts - television and the NCAA tournament - the Committee on Infractions is doing little more than slapping the school on the wrist and telling it to go play nice and not to do it again.

If the NCAA is serious about enforcing its rules, it needs to hold head coaches accountable for everything that happens in a program. No more hiding under the ridiculous notion that he just didn't know what was transpiring right under his nose. A three game suspension is not enough to get the attention of the average coach. Some argue that Calhoun takes the suspension hard because of a perceived stain on his legacy and reputation and he, indeed, has implied that he may at least appeal the decision if not sue the NCAA.

�I am very disappointed with the NCAA�s decision in this case,�� Calhoun said in a statement. �My lawyer and I are evaluating my options and will make a decision which way to proceed.��

Nevertheless, the average coach is not Jim Calhoun and for the sanctions to truly be effective the NCAA should hit coaches where their attention is most likely to be drawn - their wallets. Suspend coaches not for a few games during the season, conference games or not. Suspend them for NCAA tournament games, or other post-season games if the team doesn't make the field of 68. In the event a school under sanction fails to make the post-season, then the suspension can either carry over to the following year's post-season tournament or could be enforced in the following year's conference tournament with any remaining games to be enforced during the post-season. That may play havoc with Vegas' college basketball predictions, but that is just an added bonus as far as the NCAA is concerned.

Coaches make their reputation and their big bucks by what they do come tournament time. If they have to sit out the tournament, they may begin to realize that there is a real price to pay for violating recruiting regulations. Right now, the only problem with NCAA violations is that the player that usually causes schools to get caught rarely proves worthwhile. Nate Miles was expelled from UConn in October, 2008 without ever playing for the Huskies.

ACC

New Jersey is West of What Exactly?

21.00

BCS

Rose Parade as Economic Indicator

18.37

Big East

TCU and the Big East - A Shotgun Marriage that Just Might Work

07.59

I know it's been quite a while since I posted anything but a combination of family matters and personal health issues has kept me away from the keyboard. Hopefully, that's behind me now and posting will resume on a more regular basis, if not quite as frequent as in the past.

As most of you probably know by now, yesterday the Big East Conference and TCU announced that TCU will be joining the Big East as an all sports member beginning in 2012. While football was clearly the draw here, TCU would not move from the Mountain West Conference unless it could take all of its teams into the same conference. The Big East finally got comfortable with moving to 17 members (making it the largest D-I conference ever) and the rest is history. TCU got admission to a BCS automatic qualifying conference and the Big East got its important ninth football school and a recognized nationally ranked football team.

Much has been made about the distance of Dallas/Ft. Worth from the rest of the Big East but since the conference permits its individual sports to play locally, it is only the team sports, i.e. football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball and men's and women's soccer which require a conference schedule. Since the Mountain West required all sports to compete during the regular season against conference members, it's likely that TCU will actually have less travel in the Big East.

If this move stabilized football, as it should, and enables the conference to upgrade its television contracts with the addition of the Dallas/Ft. Worth television market, then it's much more likey that the conference will be able to survive any impending conference realignment. That doesn't mean any members may not defect to the Big Ten, it just means there is a better shot at surviving such defection with its BCS AQ intact.

The biggest loser in this move is Boise State, who is jut having a week from hell. The Broncos woke this morning to discover that they had jumped from the WAC to the ...well with Utah, BYU and TCU gone, ...the WAC.

ACC

Conference Realignment Western Style: Blood Flows Into the Great Salt Lake

11.34

It's often said about departmental politics in colleges and universities that the politics is so brutal because the stakes are so small. Maybe that's why the conference realignment game being played out among the Mountain West, WAC and West Conference Conference seems to be on a whole other plain of duplicity and hard feelings than even the infamous ACC midnight raid on the Big East. At least in that raid, with the exception of the Boston College, there were no expressions of fealty to the league being abandoned before the jump was made.

The realignment dance out west began when the Pac-10(12) decided to explore expansion. Shortly after the expansion discussions began, it became evident to BYU that it would not become a member of the PAC-10(12) and that Utah likely would. At that point, it became clear to the leadership of the WAC that an opportunity was presenting itself to elevate the league's status to becoming the top non automatic qualifying conference in the land, by providing BYU with a spot for all of its teams other than football and working out an arrangement that would allow BYU to go independent in football, which is something that BYU had been exploring for years. To that end, the WAC asked each member for a five year commitment to the league and each member agreed, whether that agreement was in writing and the nature of the agreement is going to be something that a court will likely decide but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Mountain West, now fearful of losing its two best programs, went searching for new members, other than Boise State who had jumped from the WAC before the discussions described above took place. The league asked Utah State but the Aggies declined in solidarity with its WAC brethren and in reliance on its agreement with the other members. It might end up paying a very heavy price for that choice. The WAC then asked both Fresno State and Nevada, who each thought about their commitment to the WAC for about five seconds and jumped to the MWC, probably believing BYU was staying. Now, Utah State, having been totally deceived by Fresno State and Nevada, wants a mulligan on the MWC decision and supposedly they are in discussions.

Yesterday, BYU announced it is leaving the MWC to go independent and will affiliate with the West Coast Conference in other sports. If that doesn't ring a bell, it is the wholly owned subsidiary of Gonzaga basketball. BYU also announced an eight year agreement with ESPN for broadcast of its games across the ESPN family which justifies its decision. In fact, it even has Southern Call at least thinking about taking the same route. Who knows maybe Texas will take its Longhorn Network and go independent as well, although they have all of the advantages and none of the disadvantages so I guess it wouldn't make much sense for them to leave the Big XII (X).

The WAC meanwhile is now scrambling to see if they can keep a league together. The biggest loser in all of this may be Hawai'i who desperately needs a conference to ensure enough games for all of its athletes. It's bad enough trying to schedule football when the visitor receives and extra game to make up the travel costs, but the Olympic sports have similar travel costs (admittedly the teams are smaller) but no way to make up the additional expense. If Hawai'i can't count on a conference to fill out its schedule its participation in Division I could be in jeopardy. The second biggest loser could be the only school that acted honorably in the whole mess, Utah State. If the MWC doesn't extend membership to the Aggies and they are left with the other WAC schools trying to pull together a makeshift conference, they may just have to return to the Big West.

We would like to think of our institutions of higher education as places where our children go to learn the values that help govern our free society. Based on the manner in which these schools conduct their business, the values that are being taught to out kids are the very values that embody the Wall Street mentality that put us in the Great Recession. A college or university athletic department is first and foremost a reflection of, introduction to and manifestation of that particular college or university. If this is the way that these universities wish to portray themselves to the general public, they should not cry too much when legislators cut the budgets of public schools and when public and private schools have a tougher time attracting donations. Few people like to be associated with greed, duplicity and the callous disregard for general ethics. College athletics in particular should be above this.