Calipari's Memphis critics taking jabs while awaiting response from NCAA
By Staff
On June 6, Memphis met with the NCAA and turned in their response to the NCAA allegations against their athletic program. Word was then that the NCAA would reply with any possible sanctions in a 6-8 week time period, which is right about now. Of course, this was not a hard deadline. As far as I have been able to find, there has been no official ruling about Duke and the possible sanctions against them for using an ineligible player, Corey Maggette. Lest we forget, Maggette admitted to accepting money but this was deemed before he enrolled at Duke. Yet, Duke was expected to receive sanctions. This was back in 2000 .
Now the lastest I could find on this was in this great column from 2004 and under this argument, Maggette took the money before he enrolled at Duke. In this scenario, Derrick Rose took the SAT test in question before enrolling at any school either. So using that NCAA logic, this should just go away and in say, 2016, we will all say “Hey, what ever happened with that NCAA thing and Memphis?”
Now possible sanctions against Memphis have been rumored to be stripping away the 38 wins that Rose participated in and vacating the Final Four. Seems a little extreme as the possible violations against Duke were to be returning portions of revenue. But that never happened and Duke is Duke.
Now it has to be repeated again for our UK hater friends and their golf ball sized brains that Coach Calipari is NOT at stake for any possible violations and his name was barely mentioned in the NCAA allegations. He actually participated in the NCAA response via teleconference as he was in China at the time. A recent blurb by Andy Katz reiterated the fact that due to the nature of the questions asked Cal, neither he nor UK was at risk.
Regardless, I am for Memphis in this one. I know the NCAA is ridiculous and I do not want to see either Memphis or Calipari’s reputation suffer because of a vacated Final Four. Now the pretty hate machine in Memphis, otherwise known as the Commercial Appeal had been relentless in the hate spewed towards Calipari since he left and during the Derrick Rose thing. Is it unwarranted? Yes. And while they have been silent recently, there are signs they are churning back to life.
Columnist Dan Wolken, who was recently spouting about the allure of UK to recruits and arguing that Memphis was on a similar level, recently weighed in on Coach Cal’s new website, http://www.coachcal.com/ , on his twitter:
But an NCAA coach charging for VIP content or exclusive info is most certainly a gray area (see Franchione, Dennis)4:16 AM Jul 24th from TweetDeck
Fascinating how he is using Internet to put out his message and go around the media.4:16 AM Jul 24th from TweetDeck
Just visited the new Web site Calipari has been hyping on Twitter. It’s a moneymaking venture – $5 a month for “exclusive” content.4:05 AM Jul 24th from TweetDeck
I love how Wolken throws aspersions of wrong doing at Calipari by linking him to Dennis Franchione without writing a column about it or even including it on his blog. This way, it gets “out there” that the Coach Cal website is on the shady side and as the telephone game goes, it gets repeated and spread until people just say “Oh, that horrible Cal. He’s at it again”.
Now I am all for having an opinion, but since Wolken is just throwing aspersions to the wind, let’s set the matter straight. The Coach Cal website does not in any way fall into a “gray area” and the fact to even mention it in the same text as Dennis Franchione is utterly irresponsible for a “journalist” even on his twitter.
Dennis Franchione was the former head football coach at Teas A&M who was selling a secret email newsletter to boosters for team information that he was not releasing to the media. He charged boosters $1200 a year for his “VIP Connection” and it included details on players injuries, recruiting information, and Franchione’s critical assessment of opponents. People receiving this information had to sign a waiver saying that they would not use this information for gambling. Franchione sold this info from 2004-2007 and had a profit of around $37,000.
Now in comparison, Calipari has a mostly free website that ANYONE can sign up for and and receive some video access. For $4.95 monthly, you can get “exclusive video content” and game day content. For $39.95 a year, you receive a d
ecal, a wristband, a T shirt, and future discounts on merchandise. The big ballers can pay $59.95 a year and get all of that plus a “Coach Cal” hat. Kind of sounds like a bargain to me since a T-shirt and a hat are going to run you close to $50 anyway. It is also prominently noted that a portion of the website proceeds will go to benefit the Calipari Family Foundation for Children.
So where is your world, Dan, does this even qualify as a “money making venture”, a “gray area” or even mentioned in the same dialogue as what Dennis Franchione did? Seriously, do you not think that Sandy Bell and the UK compliance department thoroughly researched this website, the aspect of charging for content, and the NCAA rules on it before giving this website the green light? For the record, Rick Pitino charges on his website for those hokey “birthday messages” and such where you can have “Pitino” call and wish a pre-recorded Happy Birthday. If you are reading, PLEASE don’t do this Cal. It’s really hokey.
But I digress. Even Pat Forde would jump to the conclusion that the Coach Cal website was a gray area or at least he hasn‘t yet. And it’s easy to dismiss this as a twitter text, but there is always intent when you push that “send” button and yours was to stir up drama and sling mud on Calipari.
Isn’t it time to move on, Dan? Instead of worrying about Calipari, maybe you should worry about wunderkid Josh Pastner and the nine scholarship players currently on his roster.
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