College Basketball: Ticking of the NCAA dilemma clock
By Ronald Evans
LSU and Auburn chose two different strategies in addressing their tainted men’s basketball programs. How deep is the rot in college basketball? So far the NCAA has no idea.
Another college basketball season has passed. The ultimate contest pitted two schools coached by men with decidedly old-school basketball philosophies. More than a few fans bemoaned “boring” and “ugly” styles of the teams who valued tenacious defense as much as offensive sizzle.
Of the things wrong with college basketball, a boring NCAA Tournament Final is not worthy of mention. Admiring or disdaining the basketball styles of Texas Tech and Virginia is opinion and nothing more.
Lovers of college basketball more attuned to fact than opinion have another concern about what is wrong with the game. What has been suspected for decades is rapidly becoming increasingly obvious. Too much of Division One college basketball is rotten to its core.
If the NCAA wants to fix the problem it starts in a quagmire of inability. Some label the NCAA’s ineffectiveness as incompetence. Others accuse the organization of being either willingly or unwittingly complicit. At the lowest possible level of NCAA failure to act is an enforcement division far too small for the scope of the task.
Possibly as many as three dozen schools
How big is that scope, in the context of the still-churning FBI investigation into college basketball? As the investigation continues, the FBI list of schools involved could grow. The Bureau only discloses crimes charged and adjudicated. There may be more stunning news to come.
Until January 2019, the NCAA had an excuse for taking no enforcement action. The U.S. Justice Department, through the Southern District of New York, discouraged involvement by the NCAA in any ongoing criminal investigations.
The NCAA can now investigate at least some of what has been estimated to be as many as three dozen Division One schools. Based on court proceedings from the FBI investigation, some of those schools are known. They are Arizona, Creighton, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State and Oregon.
At Alabama and Auburn
We also know alleged criminal activities were discovered involving players at other schools. Two of those other schools are Alabama and Auburn. For the Crimson Tide, staffer Kobie Baker was quickly forced to resign. It is no small irony one of his previous positions was in NCAA Enforcement. Collin Sexton was suspended for impermissible benefits to his family. The benefit was reportedly repaid and the NCAA ruled Sexton eligible.
Auburn had to suspend two players associated with the bribery scheme by former Auburn assistant coach, Chuck Person. Those two players, Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy were also eventually reinstated. Person recently decided to plead guilty and will be sentenced in June. The connection between Person and the two players was explained by al.com,
"Person … accepted $91,500 in bribes to use his influence over players to steer them toward a crooked financial adviser and to buy suits from an accomplice, Rashan Michel, who was also arrested as part of the investigation. Of the $91,500 Person allegedly received, the complaint states that he told a federal cooperating witness — former Pittsburgh-based financial adviser Marty Blazer — that he gave $11,000 to the mother of “Player-1” and $7,500 to the mother of “Player-2,” while Michel claimed to give $5,000 to the mother of “Player-2.”“Player-1” was believed to be Purifoy, while “Player-2” was believed to be Wiley."
For more complete disclosure, there were allegations of a ‘handler’ plan to pay several high profile recruits or their families some serious dollars. One of those recruits was Collin Sexton. To date, it has not been proven those payments were made. Also, the allegedly planned future payments to Sexton had nothing to do with anyone employed by or affiliated with the University of Alabama.
Most recent headlines
The most recent headlines have been about a taped phone conversation by suspended LSU head coach, Will Wade discussing paying a recruit. Wade and Arizona head coach, Sean Miller will testify about ‘pay for play’ schemes in late April.
An interesting wrinkle is Will Wade, Bruce Pearl and Sean Miller are now represented by the same lawyer. Wade was suspended by LSU before he hired lawyer, Steven Thompson, an expert in dealing with NCAA matters. Wade refused to talk to the LSU administration. Sound familiar? It was the same strategy Bruce Pearl used with Auburn over a year ago.
It worked for Pearl. Auburn blinked or perhaps looked away. Of course, Pearl was not recorded by the FBI. Pearl did hire and supervise an assistant coach, soon to plead guilty to federal bribery charges involving Auburn players.
We cannot know who is guilty of what. That is the job of the FBI and the NCAA. What the future holds could include more criminal charges, more guilty pleas or convictions and serious NCAA sanctions.
Will the recently sleazy release of accusations against Nike affiliated programs lead to other credible claims of wrongdoing? There is no reason to presume Adidas and Under Armour had dirty money, ‘pay-for-play’ funds and a competitor like Nike did not.
Do enough people care about the game?
What we know is many fans of LSU and Auburn do not care what Wade and Pearl may or may not have done. We also know every fan base has a segment quite content to win by any means.
Those fans, donors and boosters who endorse ‘win by any means’ are part of the rot that has decayed college basketball. Such complicity should not be ignored, but it will be unless the NCAA chooses to apply the resources needed to clean up college basketball.
The NCAA can afford to spend whatever it takes. But does it have the will? The recent history of NCAA Enforcement is it will do only as much as it has to, and not more. Given the magnitude of the college basketball scandal, that NCAA approach is not enough.