When you think of the NCAA, does enforcement, integrity, fair play, or accountability come to mind? Those attributes are in the opening statement on the NCAA webpage on enforcement. How can the NCAA say they endorse fair play when they allow Ohio State University players to play after breaking the rules? How can they claim integrity when Cam Newton was permitted to play in a championship bowl while they were still deciding what to do to USC for a similar incident involving Reggie Bush? How can you say the NCAA demands accountability when they hold different schools to different standards? The NCAA is not doing its job, resulting in a feeling of entitlement that is running rampant through NCAA sports.
If the NCAA wants integrity, they have something set up with the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, WNBA and other major sports programs stating that if a NCAA student broke the rules a penalty would follow person to the professional level, thus possibly not allowing them to play! The NCAA only cares about one thing, and it right now doesn’t seem like it’s the “student athlete”, it seems like it’s the NCAA’s bottom line.
When the parent is part of the problem, then how do you fix the problems? The answer isn’t easy, nor is it likely going to happen. As long as the NCAA is making billions off of 17-25 year olds who most don’t have another place to showcase their talents, the NCAA holds all the cards.
Now we know that the NCAA has compliance officers who are supposed to oversee their assigned schools. How has this worked out? The compliance officer is paid for by the university, many of which get perks from the university (like free cars). Doug Archie, who is the OSU Compliance person for the NCAA, has had free cars (maybe from the same dealership as Pryor). How can the NCAA do its job when its reliant on the colleges to self regulate? Shouldn’t the NCAA have people on it’s payroll at each of it’s colleges? Even one supervisor that each college paid representative would have to report to would be a step in the right direction. The NCAA is as much to blame for the rampant cheating going on in college sports as the colleges and the athletes.
Ohio State University has had major violations for eight years, yet the OSU President Gordon Gee has stated from the outset that they have followed the rules, and that the OSU compliance department was doing a good job. How can you be doing a good job when you are being paid by the people telling you to cover it up? OSU claimed it did no wrongdoing, but the reality is they have committed one of the worse grievances in NCAA history, covered it up, denied it, then pretended it was an isolated incident. Even after the SI article, they maintained a level of innocence. Where was the NCAA’s compliance officer?
In 2006 the OSU basketball program was put on probation for three years. According to the NCAA if you get a second major penalty in any sport within 5 years, you are able to be hit with the Death Penalty.
“The repeat-violator legislation (“death penalty”) is applicable to an institution if, within a five-year period, the following conditions exist: Following the announcement of a major case, a major violation occurs and
• The second violation occurred within five years of the starting date of the penalty assessed in the first case. The second major case does not have to be in the same sport as the previous case to affect the second sport.
This is directly taken from the NCAA site. http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Enforcement/Process/Penalties
With OSU losing 2 NCAA Basketball scholarships for low Grades in 2009. With all of these factors if the NCAA had its own paid compliance officer, they would have most likely found all of these problems right away. I am using OSU as an example for many reasons, the first being they are part of the Big Ten, the second is that this is a perfect example of lack of NCAA control, and lastly its one of the most winning programs in football. If the NCAA can’t follow a program that has had major problems after major problems then how can you expect the schools themselves to do what the NCAA lets go on? The NCAA supposedly investigated OSU after the 2006 incident, and the 2010 one. They supposedly found nothing, yet SI finds evidence of things much worse. Did the NCAA really do any looking? NCAA needs to be looked into now, don't you think?
the photo is taken from the NCAA site.
