NCAA Gone Wild!

[GoldenEagle]

The Life of Reilly
Corrupting Our Utes

By Rick Reilly
Sports Illustrated

Thank god for the NCAA. Without it, college sports would have more thugs than a Snoop Dogg video.

Last week, for instance, the NCAA brought notorious Utah coach Rick Majerus and his outlaw basketball program to justice. Just look what the NCAA nailed this cretin on:

*Unashamedly purchasing a dinner in 1994 for his player Keith Van Horn at a Salt Lake City deli. At 3 a.m., no less! So what if Van Horn's father had died that night? Or that Majerus was the one who had to tell him? Or that Van Horn wanted Majerus to stay with him until his 8 a.m. flight home? This ain't Dr. Phil!

"I guess I should've reached over as he was getting on the plane and said, 'Hey, you owe me $9.90 for the ham and eggs,'" Majerus says.

Do you see? Do you see the attitude?

*Brazenly buying a bagel for a player. Who cares if the player was upset about his brother's recent suicide attempt and had come to Majerus to talk? "I could've talked to the kid in my office, I guess," Majerus says. "But if you go get a bagel, it kind of relaxes a kid. It's not coach-player anymore. It's two guys talkin'."

Bah! It's one guy cheating, and, in truth, Majerus got lucky. The report never states what kind of bagel Majerus bought the kid. For instance, an "everything" bagel is a considerably larger offense in the eyes of the NCAA. And don't even get me started on the ramifications of lox.

*Twice -- twice! -- allowing assistants to buy groceries for players who didn't have enough money to eat: $20-$30 for a player whose meal plan hadn't begun yet and $20 for a prospect who hadn't yet received his scholarship. "I just felt sorry for those guys," Majerus says. "Maybe because I was that kid once, you know? No money, no friends, and you haven't eaten for two days."

Sentimental hogwash!

Majerus just doesn't get it. Take the pizza. In one instance he bought himself and a player a pizza pie at a Salt Lake eatery. So what if seeing Majerus not eating pizza is like seeing Carmen Electra in a nun's habit? Buying the pie was still wrong. And it doesn't matter that according to NCAA rules, Majerus would've committed no infraction had that very same pizza been a) delivered, b) sent up by room service, c) carried back to his room or d) served at home.

In fact a coach can serve his players catered lobster and caviar in his home if he wants, at least on occasion. (True, Majerus doesn't have a home. He lives in a hotel room year-round. Is that the NCAA's fault?) But when you wantonly go to a known pizza joint, mister, you're just begging for it.

And I don't want to hear how clean the Utah program has been either, or how, under Majerus, the Utes have had four Academic All-Americas in the last five years, more than any other Division I basketball program. Clyde Barrow used to floss. So what?

And so what if the NCAA didn't find any hidden cars or substitute test takers? What about the massive slush-fund payments? The worst example was Majerus's giving the players $10 each to go see Remember the Titans. Ten bucks? The discount theater in question charged $5 for a ticket. That leftover $5 could've gone toward all kinds of temptations -- drugs, alcohol, Junior Mints.

There was more: letting a player send a housing application in a FedEx envelope when the NCAA rule specifically states that only transcripts or standardized test scores can be included; serving milk and cookies made by Majerus's 76-year-old mother, or by Utes basketball fans, or by an athletic department secretary, at film meetings. Sure, milk and cookies sounds small, but how long is it before we're talking about the harder stuff, like pie and coffee?

There were other violations: practices going over the allotted four hours a day; Majerus watching 15 minutes of a pickup game he wasn't supposed to see and another 10 minutes of informal dribbling and dunking. You let that stuff go unchecked, and pretty soon you've got frogs falling from the clouds.

It's not an easy job, picking nits this tiny, but nobody is up to the task like the NCAA. Take the time the organization told Aaron Adair, a third baseman at Oklahoma, that the book he'd written about surviving brain cancer meant his amateur career was over. Or the work the NCAA is selflessly doing today, like making Colorado receiver Jeremy Bloom curtail his world-class skiing career and kill his modeling because they would somehow make him a professional football player. (Now, when the NCAA uses its athletes in TV ads to promote itself during the Final Four, that's just good marketing.)

I support the small-mindedness of the NCAA. In fact, my hope is that someday the NCAA will get so small -- so microscopic -- that it will slide down the holes in its shower drain and be gone for good.

[GoldenEagle]

Good read I think. I have to agree with Reilly for once. He also used a sarcastic tone, which I think best illustrated his point.

[mckerney]

Yet Maurice Clarrett is still eligable in the eyes of the NCAA.

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by mckerney
Yet Maurice Clarrett is still eligable in the eyes of the NCAA.

Ohio State in the BCS ==== $$$$$$

[mckerney]

Originally posted by The Afoci
Ohio State in the BCS ==== $$$$$$

I know. Just as the NBA would never punish the Lakers as they did the Timberwolves, the NCAA won't give treat Ohio State as they did the Gophers. How is getting speicial treatment in a class that different from having someone write papers for you?

[bigdawg2003]

What magazine said that the NCAA had the best monopoly in the country. It was something to that extent.

[FishFan]

The worst thing the NCAA ever did was hire the incompetent Myles Brand as their persident. The NCAA turns their back on every controversial issue in college athletics but has the nuts to go after Majerus and Utah?!? The kicker: after the ACC made it known that they wanted to rape and pillage the Big East, many people questioned the lack of involvement from the NCAA. Brand's response: It's not the NCAA's business. If something that will change the landscape of college athletics is not the National Collegiate Athletic Association's business, then what exactly is?

Also, where was the NCAA on the murder at Baylor? The inappropriate behavior of coaches at Alabama and Iowa St.? The NCAA did nothing. They turned their backs and decided to go after reputable programs like Utah. Despicable.

[mckerney]

Originally posted by FishFan
Also, where was the NCAA on the murder at Baylor?

The NCAA was there. Didn't you hear all the allegations that Denehey had recieved improper benefits. They were able to pull these out right around the time the body was found.

[FishFan]

Originally posted by mckerney
The NCAA was there. Didn't you hear all the allegations that Denehey had recieved improper benefits. They were able to pull these out right around the time the body was found.

Exactly.

[MrBug708]

I know. Just as the NBA would never punish the Lakers as they did the Timberwolves,

Such as?

[mckerney]

MrBug, I'm not picking on the Lakers here, though if it were the Lakers (not just them, New York or an major market could fit in this example) who came to an illegal agreement with a player as the Wolves did with Joe Smith the punishment would have been no where near as harsh. Though being it was just Minnesota, Stern makes an example on them.

[Chief Rum]

I understand what you're driving at mckerney, but you're throwing out a hypothetical that has never happened, and may very well not be true. Why not try an analogy to an existing event. Such as the foul breaks Sahq gets compared to the Wolves? Or something like that?

CR

[Samdari]

Originally posted by The Afoci
Ohio State in the BCS ==== $$$$$$

Which the NCAA gets none of...

[Samdari]

Originally posted by FishFan
Also, where was the NCAA on the murder at Baylor?

Dola.

You want the NCAA investingating and punishing murders? I know our justice system has problems, but it kicks the NCAA's ass.

As for the other stuff, do you guys even know what the NCAA is? It is an organization founded by its member schools to police themselves to make sure its athletics are amateur. One in which membership is voluntary. The NCAA is not like the league offices of major pro sports leagues where they are responsible for everything that happens. The intent and purpose of the organization is to ensure that all schools adhere to a set of rules which all have agreed to follow, mostly to ensure that athletes at member schools are both really students and amateur. The schools did not set it up to oversee coach behavior, employment issues, conference makeups, off court player behavior (or at least that not related to amateurism). They have no rules governing any of those things, and no authority over them whatsoever, as the schools have chosen to keep those functions internal. That is not going to change anytime soon, nor should it in my opinion.

[MylesKnight]

Originally posted by FishFan

The worst thing the NCAA ever did was hire the incompetent Myles Brand as their persident.

I only wish Mr. Brand could change his name..

[FishFan]

Originally posted by Samdari
Dola.

You want the NCAA investingating and punishing murders? I know our justice system has problems, but it kicks the NCAA's ass.

I would like to see the #1 rules governing organization in America (monopoly?) have some concern when a player on one of its member schools murders one of his teammates, yes.

Originally posted by Samdari
As for the other stuff, do you guys even know what the NCAA is? It is an organization founded by its member schools to police themselves to make sure its athletics are amateur. One in which membership is voluntary.

Voluntary? What other organization is a big time college program going to belong to. Sure, they say their members are on board voluntarily, but they are the only option for a big time college program.

Originally posted by Samdari
The NCAA is not like the league offices of major pro sports leagues where they are responsible for everything that happens. The intent and purpose of the organization is to ensure that all schools adhere to a set of rules which all have agreed to follow, mostly to ensure that athletes at member schools are both really students and amateur.

Hmmmm. Maybe they should come up with a rule that says players of their member organizations can not kill one of their teammates. Whether or not the NCAA is responsible, they should have some sort of interest into what is going on at their member schools. Obviously there is something wrong down at Baylor, but the NCAA heads to Utah to pick on Majerus. What the fuck?

I'm sorry, but college athletics is a big time sports league, professional or not. Maybe it's time for another organization to rise up from the ashes and take control of the downward spiral that college athletics seems to be on. Time has passed the NCAA by as they do not adapt to the ever-changing landscape of college athletics. Now, they have an inept leader who, in his time at Indiana University, took from a well-respected Big Ten school, academically, to one that ranks in the bottom of the barrel. On top of that, virtually every program and school operates in the red. Thanks, Myles. The only good that came of the NCAA's hiring of Brand is that it got his out of my alma mater and made room for a proven leader, Adam Herbert.

Originally posted by Samdari
The schools did not set it up to oversee coach behavior, employment issues, conference makeups, off court player behavior (or at least that not related to amateurism). They have no rules governing any of those things, and no authority over them whatsoever, as the schools have chosen to keep those functions internal. That is not going to change anytime soon, nor should it in my opinion.

Okay, then why did Rick Neuheisal (sp?) get fired by Washington? He was involved in a university approved tournament pool and was only fired after pressure from the NCAA. Anyone who thinks the NCAA is not involved in employment issues is naive. How does this affect amateurism in any way? The NCAA has to step into the 21st century before college athletics hits rock bottom. And that floor is not that far away.

[TroyF]

Samdari,

I'm sorry, but I disagree with you 100%. We could sit here all day talking about specific cases where the NCAA runs things like the Gestapo.

One of my best friends worked in the SID office at Oklahoma State. He helped the person in charge of reporting rules infractions to the NCAA. Every week they sent off a 5 to 10 page report to the NCAA dealing with all of the "violations" they had made during the previous week.

Some of those "violations" would make you throw up.

The amazing thing is that they go after some of the classiest people and programs out there to prove their points. Utah? Lack of institutional control? Please. Jeremy Bloom? This kid should be the poster boy for the typical athlete. He loves the game and his university so much he's willing to forgo millions in endorsement deals in ANOTHER sport. Yet the NCAA won't back down even a little. In doing so, they have made Jeremy make a decision that he should never have to make. The only good thing is that Bloom's family is fairly well off. God forbid it would have happened to a kid who wasn't so lucky. That kid would have been forced to give up the thing he loved to do.

Meanwhile, taking snaps from center is Joe Klatt. Joe is a former professional baseball player. . .

The whole thing is pathetic. I wish to God the "member" schools would trash to office and make a complete overhaul of the entire thing.

TroyF

[FishFan]

Originally posted by TroyF
The whole thing is pathetic. I wish to God the "member" schools would trash to office and make a complete overhaul of the entire thing.

Couldn't have said it better. And it needs it, too.

[Leonidas]

I think we call can agree, the NCAA pretty much sucks!

[Samdari]

Originally posted by FishFan
Maybe it's time for another organization to rise up from the ashes

This may not be so far from happening. The interests and issues affecting the top 2/3 of division I-A football programs are so vastly different from the other NCAA members that I can see them breaking off. Unfortunately, the pupose of this, nor the result would be the cleaning up of college sports. It would in fact get far dirtier.

Okay, then why did Rick Neuheisal (sp?) get fired by Washington? He was involved in a university approved tournament pool

Well, the reason THE MEMBER SCHOOLS CREATED THE NCAA (please don't forget this) is to preserve the integrity of the athletic competions between member schools. Amateurism is one thing they are charged with watching, gambling is another. Calling his pool university approved is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. He did not go to the school and ask, "hey, is it ok for me to bet 5 grand on the NCAA tourney to try to win 75K?" And if he did not know that he was wrong in doing what he did, why did he lie to try to cover it up?

Please don't misunderstand my meaning here, both FishFan and Troy. I detest the NCAA. I was merely stating basic facts (you disagree with those? how?) about the organization. It was founded by the member schools. The member schools have set up an ifrastructure that watches over certain things related to the integrity of the sport, most notably amateurism and academics, and they do have an interest in keeping gambling away from their sports.

I totally disagree with the mechanisms in place to do so, I hate that there is no room for interpretation in their rules, and think the way they go about enforcing their rules is ridiculous. Yes, them punishing Majerus for feeding his players while Maurice Clarett is driving "borrowed" SUV's is ridiculous. That does not change the basic facts of what they do oversee (extra benefits to players, academic fraud, coach's betting habits) and what they do not oversee (athlete's, and now coaches, off field behavior).

Please don't think that because I think the NCAA does not and should not (because they would F it up so bad) police a certain aspect of college athletics that I think they are in any way doing a good job of policing what they are supposed to. I just happen to think that they were and are proper in staying out of:

Rick Neuheisel's employment at UW
Mike Price's employment at Bama
Larry Eustachy's employment at Iowa St.
Who is in which conference
Murder investigations
Disciplining players for non sports-related incidents

EDIT: Added could-not-resist Clarett dig

[scooper]

NCAA Gone Wild!

Woo Hoo! Mylse Brand topless!!

Seriously, this thread title could lead to a ratings increase for women's basketball.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally posted by scooper
Woo Hoo! Mylse Brand topless!!

Seriously, this thread title could lead to a ratings increase for women's basketball.

I dont know about Women's basketball but....

Did anyone watch the College Softball World Series?

I mean, wow....