The Rest of College Football

[Wild Hoss]

Well, I will say that for every golden goose who's administration doesn't want strangled there are several copper geese- or competing golden geese- who's administrations would dearly love to see them strangled. In that vein, I for one do point the finger at the NCAA. They have the rulebooks and the authority to enforce it...they simply haven't been. When they have made punitive moves, they are often years behind the benefits incurred by the infractions. See USC for example.

The best way to discourage cheating is not to pay athletes more or make any other underlying changes to the fabric of the sport, but to make the consequences outweigh the benefits. That means serious scholarship reductions, TV bans, and yes, if necessary, program suspensions. I think fines for coaches and programs should be added as well. For certain, any costs incurred during investions which result in sanctions should be repaid to the NCAA by the program.

The NCAA cannot police every interaction between boosters and players, their parents, their high school coaches, etc. This is, IMO, the mistaken route it has taken in the past decade however, and its turned into a pathetic game of cat-and-mouse. Make the school police this stuff themselves out of fear of the consequences. Like the old Army drill sergeant line goes: "I can't make you do it, but I can make you wish you had."

I really believe it is that simple...the NCAA needs to step and kick some asses after a a decade of pitifully lax enforcement.

[entropy]

agree. The NCAA needs to punish those schools who try to hide and lie about violations. I don't blame schools for violations, even when boosters playing players. Even schools can't watch everything. But if they are hiding the problems.. or not monitoring to prevent the problem, then they should be punished harshly. To me that is scholarship reductions, allowing current players to transfer without penalty and post season bans. I'm not a fan of TV bans because that punishes schools that were not involved. I am not a fan of program supsensions either. I also like your idea of fining coaches and the programs to offset or pay for the investigations.

[Hannibal]

I don't think that Tejas is dirty. We would have seen more suspicious signs by now if they were.

[entropy]

I think Texas plays in the area of "gray". I think it is tougher to prove the fine lines they walk.

[Hannibal]

I do agree that ultimately, harsher punishment is what is needed. Cheating will continue as long as:

1. A guy who cheats at one school can still get a AAA job at another school.

2. The players who take money never get punished

3. The slap on the wrist that schools continue to get doesn't outweight the benefits of cheating.

[Mackenzie]

I left out part of my rant related to the individual colleges, AD's, presidents etc. that you refer to Jeff. The buck starts and should end there. As you also infer, we should not blame the NCAA for Auburn, USC, OlioO, etc. Why would we, when as individual school, conferences, etc., we don't want to. IMO, classic example of the tail wagging the dog. I posted before that if Tressel was so dirty then why did the Big Twen allow him to be hired in the first place. Maybe not the best example but there are other coaches who seem to fall in the same category. John Calipari come to mind. If the golden goose is sacred then everything should be done to protect it. Among other things that, to me, means zero tolerance for coach's who break the rules. I don't care if they never coach again. Break the rules at one school, not to worry, someone will hire you at another. Maybe even for more money.

Money does talk but unfortunately more and more it seems to be the only thing doing the talking and with virtually everyone willing to listen.

[Wild Hoss]

agree. The NCAA needs to punish those schools who try to hide and lie about violations. I don't blame schools for violations, even when boosters playing players. Even schools can't watch everything. But if they are hiding the problems.. or not monitoring to prevent the problem, then they should be punished harshly. To me that is scholarship reductions, allowing current players to transfer without penalty and post season bans. I'm not a fan of TV bans because that punishes schools that were not involved. I am not a fan of program supsensions either. I also like your idea of fining coaches and the programs to offset or pay for the investigations.

Agree schools cannot watch everything, but then that is the point. The most effective means of policing this stuff is peer pressure. "If I take this $1,000 I could cost my teamates their season". "If I get caught offering a player $1,000 I could cost the team its season." Its the universal nature of the punishment which makes it effective. If everybody is responsible then everybody has a stake in making sure the rules are followed. Pursuing universal fairness is a receipe for chaos.

Lay out a harsh, unwavering course and enforcement will develop, both at an individual elevel, and an institutional one. The TV ban for instance...if it hurts other schools, arrangements will appear where those schools get compensated at the offender's offense. Maybe it comes out of conference revenue sharing funds; the offending school loses money, which goes directly to it conference competitors. Another natural deterrent.

Will it work all the time? No. Will it work better than what's in place now, which amounts to kids trying to hide candy from mom and dad? IMO it will, with proper commitment.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I for one do point the finger at the NCAA. They have the rulebooks and the authority to enforce it...they simply haven't been. I really believe it is that simple...the NCAA needs to step and kick some asses after a a decade of pitifully lax enforcement.

Get your point and fundamentally I agree strongly with you. However, the matter of monitoring and enforcement is a cooperative effort between the NCAA and member institutions. That's what the charter says. If one takes a look at the rules detailing how a NCAA investigation goes down and how, once a Letter of Allegations is sent by the NCAA, it is adjudicated via the COI, it becomes very clear that cooperation and discussion are the by-words. The NCAA is not by any means equivalent to the Federal Justice Department.

Case in point. USC had a 10 year reputation of obstructionism when it came to monitoring and NCAA enforcement. They set the example of how to stonewall the NCAA and other programs followed their lead. Gray areas and loopholes are present in any code no matter how well it is written and, to say the least, the NCAA rules are terribly written. Pete Carroll figured this out and used it to his advantage. Thus, over time, even as rules emerged, were cleaned up or re-written, some college football program compliance departments learned to delay, cover up, obfuscate and lie to the NCAA. All the while the NCAA and probably most college presidents thought every thing was hunky dory. Besides, look at all that money roll in.

osu may have been the star pupil of USC's skulduggery here doing a pretty good imitation of USC. But they did one thing better than USC and their most recent AD Mike Garrett. Instead of raising the middle finger to the NCAA, osu became the most prolific reporter of violations of any NCAA program. Boy, were they doing a good job everyone thought. Meanwhile the face of osu football, the vest, was preaching the Christian ethic of conduct and penning books about how to win with integrity. Total sham and its my bet this was contrived with the lead contrivers being tressel, smith and gee.

Busted!

Keep in mind, this would have NEVER happened had it not been for Yahoo Sports and a number of other journalists who kept the heat on. Where was the NCAA? Well, its not their job to monitor. They can assist member institutions in establishing monitoring programs but they don't monitor. The programs themselves do and if they are full of cheaters, like osu's program most likely was, win, baby, win and do what you need to do to keep it that way.

So, its my view that this is a very tangled web of persons and institutions who should shoulder the blame for the blatant rule breaking of Cam/Cecil Newton, terrell pryor/talbott and Lyles/Seastrunk. It's not just the NCAA.

[*JD*]

Looks like Dee Hart is out for the year (torn ACL):

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6743494

[Wild Hoss]

Actually the NCAA does monitor, albeit in limited fashion...I heard this from a guy who works for them in enforcement. They do not have the resources (or impetus) that SI or yahoo! does however, which is pitiful. They are out there watching in some fashion however.

Regardless, they need a policy change away from putting out fires to preventing them. That requires some Draconian measures in regards to what they do know about, given how out of control things are today.

[entropy]

the NCAA actually follows tweets and facebook. yes, it is true.

[entropy]

Alabama and Virginia Tech will open the 2013 college football season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.

More...

[entropy]

Alabama will be without one of its top freshmen for the 2011 season.

More...

[entropy]

The NCAA will defend the process for determining penalties for academic misconduct after a former North Carolina football player filed a lawsuit against the organization and the school.

More...

[Wild Hoss]

the NCAA actually follows tweets and facebook. yes, it is true.

...and message boards. ;)