This one is going to really stir the pot when it comes to the NCAA, compliance, one and dones, and just about every other thing that Coach Cal has been associated with either rightly or wrongly in the last 20 years. And to keep this fair, I am going to throw a few others into the mix as well. The NCAA has yet to be able to determine where fault lies in a lot of it’s compliance cases. By that I mean, the schools are held responsible for the actions of an individual, often times who does something completely outside the scope of the school’s influence, or the coaches’. So why does the NCAA punish the innocent and the guilty go free? Well, let’s look at that from all sides.
On two separate occasions a school that Coach Calipari was the head coach of, received sanctions from the NCAA for violations of their rulebook. The first situation surrounded Marcus Camby, who couldn’t wait a few more months for when he did get his millions in a contract, so he took money and other benefits from someone who was not authorized to give him those things while he played college ball. Who gets penalized? The University of Massachusetts. Who’s image is tarnished? John Calipari. Did either of these parties have anything to do with the violations? No. However that does not matter to the NCAA.
And apparently it does not matter to the rest of the world either, because Calipari is now labeled as a cheater, a bag man, and worse by those who clearly have no real understanding of what happened. Or they have an understanding and simply choose to ignore it. Fast Forward to 2008. University of Memphis. Derrick Rose has supposedly not taken his SAT. Now that is an oversimplification, because no one really knows what Derrick Rose did. The University of Memphis let Derrick’s brother ride on the team plane and did not get him to reimburse them for it, that much is proven and admitted to. Did Coach Calipari know this? Possibly, but not likely. Should the university have known it? Definitely. Should Derrick Rose himself have stepped up and made sure that the reimbursement was paid? Absolutely.
So now the University of Memphis gets victimized by the NCAA the same way that Massachusetts did. Who’s reputation takes the hit? John Calipari. Calipari himself was cleared by the NCAA in both cases, so we know that he is not the culprit here. But does anyone else care or even acknowledge that fact? Not Bryant Gumbel. He slurs Calipari’s name without batting an eye. Not our opponents, they take pot shots at Calipari like he is a duck in the arcade with a red, white, and blue target on his back. But Calipari is not alone here. Coaches have always taken the brunt of the grief when it comes to the masses, and schools always pay the price when it comes to the penalties.
Let me enlighten you. Rick Pitino before actually coming to UK was slammed with the release of information that he himself was guilty of actually committing infractions while at Hawaii as an assistant coach. There were allegations of trading cars for tickets, plane tickets being provided to recruits, free food coupons at McDonalds ( free food coupons at McDonalds??? C’mon guys….puhleeeze.). He was taken to task for it before his hire, but he has never faced the kind of slanderous press and innuendos that Calipari has faced, and he was never linked to any wrongdoing on his own part. Should those violations have cost Pitino his career as a coach? Well, if they had, then UK would probably be at least one NCAA championship short of it’s current number and possibly two.
On the flip side, we have some coaches who go overboard ( and that is a matter of opinion) to protect their programs and pay no attention to the wins and losses that may occur as a result. The new UT head coach has already been hit with a situation that required him to revoke a scholarship of one player. Derek Dooley is not taking any chances, especially considering his predecessor left UT in a world of hurt concerning ongoing NCAA investigations. These may not mean anything in the end, but if I were Lane Kiffin, I would think long and hard before I ever went to Tennessee again for anything. And in the UT situation, the coach is now gone and the school is left to pick up the pieces whatever they may be.
Dooley is the kind of a guy that will penalize himself before the NCAA gets involved. Will that kind of behavior keep the NCAA out of his sandbox? Don’t bet on it. I respect what Dooley is trying to accomplish in spite of the atmosphere of devil may care antics towards the NCAA in the past at Tennessee. But is all of that Tennessee’s fault? I guarantee you that The University of Tennessee did not put a gun in one of their basketball players hand’s last winter and tell them to go joyriding. I am no Bruce Pearl fan, but I know he is not that stupid. Nor is he willing to push someone to be a criminal. These coaches have so little real control over these players it is not even funny. They can keep them off the court or field, or take away a scholarship, but that is the extent of their power.
But to top it all off, the NCAA cannot decide what is fair punishment no matter who you are. Ask Corey Maggette and Duke. They can commit violations and walk away Scot free. We have to have even handed decisions, given out by respected and acknowledged people in the field of college athletics. Not a former offender who almost cost their institution the death penalty themselves. Paul Dee was running the University of Miami during the period of time they were often referred to as NCAA Infraction U.
So what happens to the players in all of this? Derrick Rose is now making millions in the NBA. So is Camby.Most end up making the money hand over fist while their Alma maters pay the price. Les Smith from Fox 13 in Memphis told me that Rose’s parents were the real culprits in his situation and I tend to agree with him. There is no real accountability for anyone who should be held accountable. There is a line from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in which the imaginary character Gordon Gekko says :
Before I was quoted as saying that greed, for lack of a better word, was good. Now it seems all these years later that it is also legal.
One thing is for sure and certain. There are plenty of unscrupulous people out there. The problem is that most of them are completely and 100% untouchable by the NCAA or anyone else for that matter. And whether we like it or not, the players themselves are where most of this is centered.The kids who have people whispering in their ear about what they are gonna be and who they are going to own, need to step up and be responsible about this problem. And the NCAA has to find a way to change the rules so that the truly guilty parties are being punished when something does go wrong. If Marcus Camby does the right thing, then when the Derrick Rose situation crops up, there is no second guessing the coach. those two incidents are many years and thousands of miles apart. Coaches do not deliberately break rules just to see if they are going to get caught. We have to have a system in college athletics where the athlete is treated and held responsible for their actions as what they truly are. A young adult. Should they be ruined for life because of a mistake? No, but neither should a coach who simply did not know what was going on. Should a school lose 30+ wins and a final four appearance because of a plane ticket and the appearance of wrongdoing by a former player? Doing something before he was ever a member of that school’s team? As much as we may not like it. A coach is responsible for their players that is true. But should my parents who never committed a crime in their lives be held responsible if I rob a liquor store? Not if I am an adult they are not.
There are coaches out there who have put everyone in a bad light, that is true. But most of them have either left coaching, or at least left college. I can stand here and quote chapter and verse about some of the biggest names in the sport, but then I would be perpetuating the myth I seek to destroy.
We have got to find a way for the right things to start happening to the right people. What is the answer? I am not sure. Fines? Who knows.Penalties on a player’s scholarship, maybe. But if they turn around and bolt for the pros after a scandal, then where’s the penalty? If we cannot find a way to punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent in collegiate sports then I fear we are headed down a path that ends with a disaster for everyone. Someone find me a way to exonerate the innocent, punish the guilty,and make the schools the place where the players can live, work, get a degree, and maybe become a professional athlete. That seems to me to be the mandate for the NCAA. Find a balance of amateurism and reality. Work for those billion dollar TV contracts you have. Show the average fan out there that the NCAA wants to solve problems and not just increase the size of their bank accounts. And maybe no one will want you to be disbanded and replaced by an organization that can do those things.
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