It’s been quite a fall for the NCAA enforcement staff. Since August, the NCAA has, among other things:
- ruled Mississippi transfer quarterback Jeremiah Masoli ineligible for no apparent reason (a decision ultimately reversed);
- had to figure the equivalent value of a hotel for staying at someone’s house in the case of UNC defensive back Deunta Williams;
- decided that Michigan football committed violations regarding practice time but determined head coach Rich Rodriguez knew nothing about practice;
- determined Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl committed recruiting violations and lied to the NCAA but did nothing about it;
- determined UNC football players Robert Quinn and and Greg Little took nearly $5000 each in improper benefits and lied to the NCAA but were declared permanently ineligible;
- determined Kansas basketball player Josh Selby took over $5000 in improper benefits but was suspended for only 1/3 of the season;
- and in the granddaddy of them all, determined that Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was pimped around by his father to the tune of nearly $200,000, but since Newton supposedly himself didn’t know, there was nothing wrong with it.
But the NCAA has really outdone itself this time, taking the unprecedented step of suspending a big-name coach for a secondary violation.
The NCAA has suspended Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo for Saturday’s game against Prairie View A&M for employing someone associated with a potential recruit at the Spartans’ summer basketball camp.
The NCAA has a prohibition against the employment of an “individual associated with a prospect” (also known as IAWP), and the spirit of the rule makes sense: it is designed to prevent unscrupulous schools from “employing” friends, family, or handlers of prospects as a way to provide an recruiting inducement.
Like many NCAA rules, this prohibition exists because somebody somewhere was doing this, so a rule was made against it. And this rule highlights the unseemly nature of college recruiting, particularly in college basketball, where there are so many handlers and intermediaries in the form of AAU coaches, family members, advisers, and what not (cough, John Wall and Brian Clifton, cough) who have their palms out to be greased.
I like what the NCAA is doing in actually trying to hold head coaches accountable, since they are usually loathe to do that (see Rodriguez and Pearl) while having no compunction about dropping the death penalty on players and assistant coaches.
But in this case, they have swatted a fly with a sledgehammer. According to Michigan State, they had no idea the IAWP was actually associated with the prospect since he did not bring the prospect to camp nor have any contact with him while he was there. In addition, the IAWP was paid $475 for his week’s work, which is exactly what all the other counselors were paid.
Moreover, in the case of summer camps, the head basketball coach usually has practically nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of administering the camps. That traditionally falls to an assistant coach or some other staffer who would actually do the hiring of individual coaches or counselors. The chances that Tom Izzo himself actually hired or signed off on the hiring of the IAWP are very slim, yet Izzo is paying the penalty.
Most important, however, is that this issue is considered a secondary violation by the NCAA. These sorts of violations happen all the time and are generally minor in nature, thus the term “secondary”. If the NCAA is going to start suspending head coaches for secondary violations, then get ready for a lot of games coached by assistants. The byzantine (and ever-changing) nature of the NCAA rulebook makes secondary violations almost inevitable, even in the otherwise cleanest of programs.
You also have to wonder how the NCAA can justify the suspension of Tom Izzo for something like this when Bruce Pearl committed actual recruiting violations with actual prospects (as opposed to an IAWP) and lied to the NCAA but the NCAA imposed no penalty (as of yet) on Pearl.
The larger issue for our little corner of the college sports universe is that NCAA rulings and probable penalties await the UNC football program, and based on this development, it is even more difficult to try and predict a result based on precedent. The NCAA is wildly inconsistent in their interpretations of their own rules and the dishing out of penalties. They are alternately aloof and draconian and those hoping Carolina will either get a slap on the wrist or the death penalty would seem to have an equal chance of getting their wish.
Meanwhile the NCAA under new president Mark Emmert will continue to be viewed with as much skepticism and derision as it always has been when it continues to act in this manner.
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Welcome back Doc. Will Brian be coming out of the bunker too?
There seems to be a lot of resentment from UNC Fan towards the NCAA these days. Much like the resentment some UNC professors have toward their own school. While I agree that some NCAA rulings are head scratching I don’t think we can fathom how difficult of a job the NCAA enforcement staff actually has. There can’t be blanket solutions on different situations. And in the sports world we live in today information and money travels too fast for any legislative structure to keep up with. In some cases their will be slaps on the wrist and others there will be a message sent.
As for Pearl, hasn’t Tennessee banned Pearl from recruiting off campus and will he not be banned for the first half of the SEC season? Like this situation, maybe the NCAA doesn’t do anything b/c the University of Tenn already has.
The SEC suspended Pearl for 1/2 the SEC season, not UT. The NCAA has not closed the investigation in Knoxville and more could be heaped on them besides the SEC penalty.
None of this head scratching stuff is new. Take the case, I believe in 1999 when a basketball player for a prominent triangle school actually had an agent in HS. He played his freshmen year and should have been completely ineligible and the school/coach should have been punished, and a Final Four appearance nullified.
Instead the NCAA said to COACH K, get Maggette off your campus and we’ll forget about it……….
Thanks, J. Brian remains in the secure, undisclosed, underground location for the time being.
I think there are three breeds of UNCFan: The “support Butch though the heavens may fall” bunch; the “we’re a basketball school who sold our soul to the devil and Jimmy Sexton to be big-time in football and see what it got us” bunch; and the “let’s wait to see how this all plays out before we go one way or the other” bunch.
The resentment/trepidation you describe as it relates to the NCAA depends on which crowd you fall into. The “support Butch” crowd will be defiant as it relates to the NCAA; the “basketball first” crowd will play the victim; and the middle of the road crowd is fearful because the NCAA is so danged unpredictable.
Articles have been written and fanbases are staking their self-worth on how this will all turn out for UNC and the point is that A) the situation at UNC is unprecedented and B) even if it wasn’t, precedent isn’t always the order of the day for the NCAA.
Plus, let’s not forget the larger point as it relates to Izzo, which is that if the NCAA is going to start suspending coaches for secondary violations, that opens a Pandora’s box every bit as impressive as the one caused by the Cam Newton ruling.
There’s a 4th segment of UNC fans: those who see Davis as incompetent and worthy of being shown the door before the season started. If he was not aware of much of this he should have and should be fired for gross lack of control of the program; if he knew and let things slide and hoped not to be caught- also fire his ass (it’s in his contract). This has nothing to do with “being a basketball school” it has to do with a fine school being embarrassed by an incompetent AD and head coach. Any progress the football program has made will be reversed by coming NCAA sanctions and the sullied reputation: HS kids may have short memories but opposing coaches while recruiting won’t.
And now the thread jack…. Maryland seems ready to pull the plug on the Fridge and will hire Cap’t Mike Leach. Aaargghh, matey!
http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1166968
Yet another program that will kick Butch’s sorry ass if he’s retained.
Looks like Butchie-Poo will be back next year!
http://twitter.com/#!/TarHeelFootball/status/16677988061937664
I for one, could not be happier. There’s some coaches at other schools that just pose no threat at all, so it’s great when they stick around!
To be fair though, Kev, who really DOES pose a threat to Beamer? I mean, sure, you might beat him once or twice, but has anyone ever really OWNED him? He goes out and wins 9, 10, 11 games a year, EVERY YEAR, and there’s really not a damn thing you can do about it. Plus, he does it without a whiff of any kind of impropriety. It’s almost Dean-like. I respect that man. I don’t particularly like him, but I damn sure do respect what he’s built in Blacksburg.
Bobby Bowden owned Beamer, but yeah, he’s gone now. The only other current ACC coaches to beat him more than once are Butch and Tom O’Brien, but they have some wins from the Big East days to their credit.