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a. the NCAA was nice to IU - (anybody think that is true ?)
b. that the program implosion was why even more penalties were not forthcoming - (IU's compelling case , self reporting and penalties were irrelevant )
c. or that Myles Brand intervened exerting unsavory influence to spare his beloved IU - ( get your Brooklyn Bridge here )
His article is like an Oliver Stone conspiracy theory ........lite !
The NCAA did good things to my surprise:
1. directly penalizing those that knowingly broke the rules
2. not penalizing the innocent ( new players, coaches, IU compliance staff )
3. not further damaging an "important" school
4. encouraging self reporting and self penalties
He would have valid points about schools lIke USC getting soft treatment but he choose to use the self reporting , self penalizing, overly compliant IU as the example instead.
A valid point he misses is that if IU can self monitor ALL calls( vs 18% of other schools ) then so can everyone else and NCAA compliance would be better
Yahoo! sports was the first to report the Reggie Bush mess at USC. I was hoping that they'd do a little more due diligence on their other reporting. I understand the point Wetzel's trying to make, but I feel he's using spotty logic in order to get the point across.
1. It self reported it, it did not cover it up;
2. It imposed tough sanctions on itself immediately;
3. It fired two coaches, the top assistant and the head coach;
4. It dismissed two players who were part of the bad atmosphere created by Sampson;
5. Hired a coach with impeccable character and credentials;
6. The new coach without worrying about the next basketball season, dismissed two more players who were not willing adhere to the rules; and
7. The new coach recruited a bunch of young men that any university would be proud to say were part of its basketball program.
IU hadn't violated NCAA rules for more than forty years. When a violation was discovered, IU took extraodinary steps to rectify the situation. That's why the Ncaa didn't hammer IU.
"IU hadn't violated NCCA rules"
I posted
"IU didn't have a MAJOR infraction"
Check your post.
These days, most places would have one of their big name players sit out for the home game against NJIT. My how times have changed.
i thought that the article was a classic example of someone with a national readership taking advantage of the fact that most, if not all, of the readers outside of indiana don't know the specifics of the circumstances well enough to call him out on his half-truths and partial facts.
if he really wanted to make the case of major programs getting away with major violations he would have talked about usc (reggie bush and oj mayo) and florida state (60 "student-athletes cheating through an online course of all things).
his point that major programs should get the same treatment as small programs as small schools is admirable, but his examples are disappointing. a simple google search reveals that texas southern got busted for paying student-athletes and playing a player under a different name because they were ineligible to play under their own. that's a bit worse than making impermissible phone calls. st. augustine college was busted for playing 29 ineligible student-athletes over a four year span. again, more serious than impermissible phone calls. again, the point wetzel is trying to make is admirable, but he needs to come up with better examples before he publishes his accusations of unfair treatment.
The infractions were PHONE CALLS. It's obvious that there are some who are likening it to COMPENSATION, JOB w/pay for no work or FREE SHOES. It's still a violation and I think the NCAA response was appropriate, regardless as to the institution.
That being said, it would be unfair for any NCAA ruling not to take into consideration the integrity of the institution, and as far as the basketball program goes, I think we know who built Indiana's Basketball program integrity.
An institution's reputation should factor into the decision of the NCAA, whether it's a history of integrity and self-reporting or a record of non-compliance and cover-up. Fortunately, Indiana got the benefit of a record of integrity that includes self-reporting on violations, even some as benign as the Alford incident as well as this incident
The NCAA has validated the belief that while the University may have been delinquent regarding some monitoring of compliance, once discovered, the violations were reported. To me, this further incriminates Sampson and Senderoff and hopefully sends a message to the coaching fraternity.
This does not make Indiana University free from blame. They did hire the coach, and his history of violations was known and appropriate actions were obviously not taken to ensure the integrity of the University and we are paying for that now.
As far as the phone calls, and I don't know the answer to this, so if you know, post it, which of the current and future crop of players were recruited with illegal calls by Sampson? How many of the illegal calls were illegal only because of the previous sanctions Indiana inherited when they hired Sampson?
I am also unaware of what sanctions remained on the Oklahoma program in the wake of Sampson, anyone know?