NCAA Recruiting violations minor in the grand scheme
Jack Hittinger
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Sports
I've been watching a lot of college basketball recently, and I'm always puzzled at the amount of villianizing they put into news about seemingly minor recruiting scandals.
Case in point: the recent tribulations of former Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson, who allegedly made illegal calls to potential recruits, caused him to step down as coach.
Let me state right now, I know this is a violation of NCAA policy, and they want the playing field to be as level as possible.
So the policy is fine by me. And Sampson made matters worse by lying to the Indiana administration when directly confronted by the university. I don't know, Kelvin, what do you think? Probably a bad move.
And, yeah, the Michigan State fan in me thought it was pretty funny Sunday when, in the waning minutes of a blowout, Spartan fans added insult to injury chanting "Hoosier Daddy?" and "Hoosier Coach?"
What I don't get, though, is why announcers, commentators and sports columnists blow these situations way out of proportion. Sure, Sampson made a bonehead move and probably deserved to be fired.
But why is this guy suddenly the scourge of college basketball? It's not like he choked his own players or was in on a giant rape cover-up. According to NCAA documents on the scandal, Sampson, among other things, made about 10 more conference calls to prospective players than was allowed.
Oooohhh … wait … huh? I was expecting something a little more, you know, ribald. I figured Sampson was in on something actually "major" … like point shaving or, better yet, stealing the Purdue mascot and doing lewd things to it.
What else could it possibly be, to elicit headlines like this one, from ESPN: "Dark day at Indiana ends a messy, ugly saga with Sampson." And here's one from the Indianapolis Star from Feb. 13: "It's time for IU to cleanse itself of the slime."
Are you kidding me? This guy made a bunch of admittedly stupid and ill-timed phone calls, and that's a "dark day?" That's "slime?"
We're in pretty good shape if that's the worst a college basketball coach can do.
I can pick up the phone and entice people to play for my basketball team.
The only difference is when I do it, the guy on the other end swears at me and calls me a "prank caller." When Sampson, or any coach for that matter, does it, he's some sort of monster needing to be stopped at all costs.
Look, I understand he's not an upstanding citizen, someone we should revere. He lied and did something he knew was against the rules. The fact that the NCAA would have deservedly sanctioned the crap out of him would've been enough.
His reputation is probably tarnished for good, all for picking up the phone a few times.
Reach Jack at jhittinger@hillsdale.edu
Case in point: the recent tribulations of former Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson, who allegedly made illegal calls to potential recruits, caused him to step down as coach.
Let me state right now, I know this is a violation of NCAA policy, and they want the playing field to be as level as possible.
So the policy is fine by me. And Sampson made matters worse by lying to the Indiana administration when directly confronted by the university. I don't know, Kelvin, what do you think? Probably a bad move.
And, yeah, the Michigan State fan in me thought it was pretty funny Sunday when, in the waning minutes of a blowout, Spartan fans added insult to injury chanting "Hoosier Daddy?" and "Hoosier Coach?"
What I don't get, though, is why announcers, commentators and sports columnists blow these situations way out of proportion. Sure, Sampson made a bonehead move and probably deserved to be fired.
But why is this guy suddenly the scourge of college basketball? It's not like he choked his own players or was in on a giant rape cover-up. According to NCAA documents on the scandal, Sampson, among other things, made about 10 more conference calls to prospective players than was allowed.
Oooohhh … wait … huh? I was expecting something a little more, you know, ribald. I figured Sampson was in on something actually "major" … like point shaving or, better yet, stealing the Purdue mascot and doing lewd things to it.
What else could it possibly be, to elicit headlines like this one, from ESPN: "Dark day at Indiana ends a messy, ugly saga with Sampson." And here's one from the Indianapolis Star from Feb. 13: "It's time for IU to cleanse itself of the slime."
Are you kidding me? This guy made a bunch of admittedly stupid and ill-timed phone calls, and that's a "dark day?" That's "slime?"
We're in pretty good shape if that's the worst a college basketball coach can do.
I can pick up the phone and entice people to play for my basketball team.
The only difference is when I do it, the guy on the other end swears at me and calls me a "prank caller." When Sampson, or any coach for that matter, does it, he's some sort of monster needing to be stopped at all costs.
Look, I understand he's not an upstanding citizen, someone we should revere. He lied and did something he knew was against the rules. The fact that the NCAA would have deservedly sanctioned the crap out of him would've been enough.
His reputation is probably tarnished for good, all for picking up the phone a few times.
Reach Jack at jhittinger@hillsdale.edu
Be the first to comment on this story