Couple of Write-ups on HBO fallout

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Both from CFN (all emphasis mine)

From Russ Mitchell:

Nothing truly material is likely to come out of the HBO Report/Roundtable. That's not a good thing, but it'll be yet another case of a big college football story that produces little.

First, the Reggie Bush situation is comparable to neither the Cam Newton nor the $100 handshake scenarios. Like many, I have strong reservations about the whole "I didn't know what Daddy was doing" defense, but to date the NCAA appears to have allowed it., and neither Newton nor Auburn University have admitted to any wrong doing.

Second, on the issue of hundred dollar handshakes, If accurate, it clearly violates NCAA rules, but will the NCAA, in perhaps a red-faced state of embarrassment, pass down heavy-handed punishment?

Not unless it wants to set precedent for that going forward.

People have been getting $100 handshakes for years, and while it might not be right, given the inequities and cheating many suspect is going on in college sports, particularly football and basketball, to think that a big punishment is going to be handed down for this is a bit hopeful/Pollyanna depending on your point of view.

Unless Real Sports has concrete proof that 1) Stanley McClover, and the others in the piece, received the money, or 2) kids were getting more than a few hundred dollars here and there (think: a house), then nothing grave will happen. And from what limited feedback we’ve heard before the show’s airing, it’s unlikely either of these will occur.

Even then, don’t expect anything quickly. Yahoo! Sports had proof on the USC situation, and later, the NCAA had access to sworn depositions, and it still took years for USC to get hit with sanctions.

Third, the current blowup at OSU is another red herring. That has far less to do with pay-or-play or the behavior of student-athletes than it does a coach’s (perhaps administrator’s) behavior in first misleading than in a cover-up after the fact.

If Tressel had come clean right out of the gate about forwarding the email and not reporting it to his bosses, he'd be in a much better place - even acknowledging the cheating. It's the cover-up of the cover-up that's going to burn Tressel and not anything directly to do with money going to student-athletes.

Fourth, we understand many of the specific infractions likely to be discussed in the program involve events that are past the NCAA’s statute of limitations, or regard athletes/coaches that have long since left their respective programs. That will only make it more difficult for the NCAA to hand down draconian punishment.

Fifth, and this goes to the point about handshakes, unless the cheating is egregious, we’ve all come to expect some level of cheating in college sports, particularly football. As we saw from the NCAA's (and collectively our) reaction to Sports Illustrated Josh Luchs-agent story, which named names, dates and locations of payoffs, .

What Josh Luchs-agent story, you ask? Exactly.

Finally, stop kidding yourself. Have you not learned from the past several decades? The NCAA was never established to truly police its member organizations. The power resides at the edges, with the universities. To say its infractions division has been grossly underfunded/staffed is to say Lindsay Lohan has had a few bad hair days.

The NCAA was created to make/protect money – and in case you haven’t noticed, it’s raining Benjamins. That's where the real money is, not in handshakes, and the Real Sports broadcast isn’t going to change that.

Set your expectations accordingly: don’t anticipate huge NCAA penalties nor any fundamental shift to the business model.

The best thing to come out of this broadcast will be the continued discussion of the glaring inequity of big time college sports and the fact that billions of dollars are made off the effort of those who aren't even close to fairly compensated for their time, risk, and star power.

But even that will quietly go away after time. At least it will after the next big media event hits the fan.

From Fiutak

HBO’s Real Sports has gotten former Auburn star defensive end Stanley McClover to talk, and the repercussions are about to be felt throughout the college football world. No matter if what McClover says is true or not, the NCAA, in the wake of scandal after scandal, has to finally realize that it has absolutely no control whatsoever over major college football programs.

Allegedly, McClover, and former Tigers Chaz Ramsey, Raven Gray, and Troy Reddick, were paid during their time at Auburn, then coached by Tommy Tuberville. The McClover bombshells being dropped are hitting others, too, as he detailed the slimy underbelly of the college football recruiting process.

And now the fallout will come. There’s too much egg on the NCAA’s face for nothing to happen.

While the alleged violations supposedly happened during Tuberville’s tenure, if it comes out that there’s a culture of cheating at Auburn, as McClover and others are alleging, the spotlight will eventually go back to last year’s national title team and Cam Newton. The question has to be asked once again; if Cecil Newton was asking for money from Mississippi State, then why did the Newtons pick Auburn? If nothing else, fair or not, the public perception issue is a disaster, and McClover’s statements will end up affecting how people think of the national champs.

No matter what happens, none of this will matter to Newton. The NFL doesn’t care a lick about college football’s dopey rules – remember, there aren’t any broken laws in any of the allegations being revealed by Real Sports – and for everyone waiting to see if 2010 Auburn becomes another 2004 USC, remember, for the moment, and this is important, this is all about the pre-Gene Chizik time and it doesn’t mean the NCAA will find anything further on the Heisman winner. EVERYONE is looking for the Newton smoking gun, and there isn’t one … for now. However, if what McClover is saying is true, Auburn will almost certainly get punished, but it might not be for anything involving Newton or the 2010 team … again, for now.

While Auburn will be in the spotlight and might get clobbered when all is said and done, Ohio State, in the short term, might suffer the most immediate collateral damage.

In the piece, McClover details money-making recruiting visits to LSU, Michigan State, and Ohio State, and while he allegedly received hundreds of dollars from boosters during visits and camps at all three schools, as well as Auburn, he also allegedly received hundreds of dollars during his visit to Ohio State while attending wild parties and receiving sexual favors. Of course, all the named schools are denying any wrongdoing, and there will be a backlash against McClover with many questioning his character, but if any of this is true in any way about the Buckeyes, can Jim Tressel survive another scandal?

Yes, the big story is Auburn, and yes, if McClover is telling the truth there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that’s new or isn’t being done at just about every other major program with just about every other major recruit, but considering that Tressel is under so much fire and under so much scrutiny for his recent cover-up of the Terrelle Pryor Tattoo Five situation, this might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. At the very least, it’ll be yet another black mark for Ohio State and could be yet another opportunity for the NCAA to throw the “lack of institutional control” tag on the program. McClover, who orally committed to Ohio State, might have done far more damage to the program than Pryor.

On a bigger scale, this might be the moment that college football finally has to look in the mirror and figure out what it wants to be. The Josh Luchs-agent story didn’t inspire anything more than a yawn, and the Sports Illustrated piece on the criminal element in college football went absolutely nowhere, but the body blows are piling up. Forget about some schools having no control over their programs; the NCAA should be cited for a “lack of institutional control” because, obviously, nothing it’s doing is working.

Even if McClover is telling the truth and several schools get hit with penalties, four and five-star recruits will receive the same hundred-dollar handshakes, go to the same wild parties, and get all the extra perks and enticements from other schools. NCAA, whether or not any of the Real Sports piece is true is immaterial; what McClover is saying is happening on a regular basis, and while it’s impossible to get anyone else to open up about it and go on the record, it’s time to take your head out of the sand.

So what’s the answer? NCAA, either 1) realize that what McClover is alleging isn’t really that bad and the old school rules that no one follows are silly and should be abolished, or 2) you get Medieval and you start punishing. Really punishing.

Obviously, blowing up USC isn’t going to be any sort of a deterrent, and going SMU-style Death Penalty is too much, but there has to be some place in between the two areas that finally, once and for all, that cleans up college football the way the NCAA and the college presidents wants. It’s time to eliminate the hypocrisy and the controversy from the sport, but no matter what the fallout it, this can’t keep happening. There can’t be a new scandal every few days. College football can’t continue to be a punchline.

[Townhallsavoy]

I've said for a while that if the NCAA really wants to stop any kind of cheating, they have to actually hammer those involved.

Hypothetically - let's say it comes out that Tuberville's staff was turning a blind eye to Pay for Play or even encouraging it.  Well, Tuberville and every member of his staff should be banned from college football. 

Forget Texas Tech's contracts.  Forget Eddie Gran's position with Florida State. 

If you really hit the culprits with suspensions, bans, and fines, you'll make every university think twice about allowing ANY kind of cheating. 

But alas, the most factual statement in those articles was that the NCAA protects money.  100% truth.

[Snaggletiger]

Well said THS.  You know better than most having been there, done that.  I've mentioned this before but it's worth repeating.  If you have access to ESPN's documentary on the recruitment of Marcus Dupree...watch it.  Amazing how many blatant violations went on.  Thousands of $$$ paid just for the chance to talk to the kid.  Mobile homes moved in for mama just by asking. Yes, this was around 1980...but what happened between then and now to make anyone think this stuff stopped, or was even curtailed a teensy bit?  It hasn't.  And as the college game has evolved into the proverbial golden goose, I would imagine the temptation to do whatever it takes to get that 5* player has gone through the roof. 

[JR4AU]

I didn't watch the show.  Were there any allegations that Auburn COACHES gave players money?  Not handed them a piece of unopened mail from somewhere an someone else, but a COACH giving or funneling money?

The NCAA walks a dangerous line with trying to punish schools for having rogue boosters.  The NCAA in such cases is limited to enforcing the school knowing about it, and not reporting it/stopping it/and making the player pay it back if any money is received.  The NCAA can't do shit to boosters.  And, neither they, nor the school can control what a booster does.  They can "disassociate" a booster, which really just means they won't accept his money, but they can't stop him from buying a ticket to a game and attending.  I mean, they could, a ticket is a revocable license, but how do you police someone buying a ticket off the street and attending a game, then going outside the locker room to pass out Benjamins after?  You have to literally have someone catch them in the act and trespass them.  Not going to happen.  How do you police a kid's hometown fans giving money to his family in increments of a hundred to a thousand dollars to funnel to their son playing ball at Auburn?  It can't be done.  The school, the program, the coaching staff doesn't have the manpower to do it. 

[AU_Tiger_2000]

How do you police a kid's hometown fans giving money to his family in increments of a hundred to a thousand dollars to funnel to their son playing ball at Auburn?  It can't be done.  The school, the program, the coaching staff doesn't have the manpower to do it.

Can player's on athletic scholarship get additional scholarships?  When I went to Auburn I got a small scholarship (think it was around $300 a quarter) from my local county alumni association.  What's to stop player's from getting something like that?

[Tiger Wench]

My question is - if McClover was on a full athletic scholarship, why did he get/need Pell Grant money?  And how could he use Pell Grant money to buy a car?

the funds can be used for supplies, gas, software and other expenses that are directly tied to college.

A car?

[JR4AU]

Can player's on athletic scholarship get additional scholarships?  When I went to Auburn I got a small scholarship (think it was around $300 a quarter) from my local county alumni association.  What's to stop player's from getting something like that?

I don't know the details, or how the NCAA addressed it, but Nebraska used to have kids that were technically walkons that were given scholarships by their local HS Boosters.  Don't know now much, or how often that happened, but I think the loophole was closed.  I know back in the day, Bahr used to give some kids a baseball or basketball scholarship, and the NCAA closed that loophole on him too.  None of that is exactly like what you're asking, but the answer to your question, I'm pretty sure, is NO, you can't get that extra money.

If you listened to JOX this mornng, they had Ziemba and Pugh on for a couple of hours.  They talked about money.  Players get a stipend.  If they don't live in on campus housing, they get like $4500 a semester to pay rent, buy food, pay bills, etc.  Not a lot, but they're not broke.  Kids who come from poor families can also get Pell Grants too.  The max you can get on that is $5500, and I'm sure the fact they're on scholarship factors in to that, as does their overall family's financial situation.  The Pughs and Ziembas of the world can't get them.  Stanley McClover did.  It's not much, but a kid that stayed off campus and went to summer school could conceivable get about $15-20K, give or take, in living expenses via stipend and grants. 

[GH2001]

My question is - if McClover was on a full athletic scholarship, why did he get/need Pell Grant money?  And how could he use Pell Grant money to buy a car?

A car?

An Impala on DUBS to be exact.

[AUChizad]

An Impala on DUBS to be exact.

Real ballas drive Civics 

[War Eagle!!!]

Can player's on athletic scholarship get additional scholarships?  When I went to Auburn I got a small scholarship (think it was around $300 a quarter) from my local county alumni association.  What's to stop player's from getting something like that?

I am pretty sure that if you have an athletic scholarship, that you can't have any others. The reason being is because the athletic scholarship should be anything that a kid needs. Books, Room, board and tuition. Anything else given is an "extra" benefit...

[Jumbo]

Real ballas drive Civics 

[Saniflush]

It may have changed since I was there but the way it was worded is an athlete cannot receive anything that a regular student could not have access to and if your parents income was low enough you could get the Pell money.  As I recall if you did not use all your Pell grant from that quarter you got the rest of it in a lump sum.
I have had a beer or eight since then though so I may be remembering incorrectly.