The Breaking Point?

Add Miami to the list of major college football programs engulfed in scandal. Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Auburn: the list goes on and despite promises from the NCAA that a long-term solution is the number one priority, one has to wonder if that is in fact the truth or just a means of avoiding the real problem while they continue to profit off the system. Between the BCS and the charade that is amateurism in modern collegiate athletics, the NCAA clearly faces a situation that calls for some serious reform. However, as long as the schools that comprise the NCAA continue to profit from collegiate athletics, division one football more specifically, the impetus for this necessary reform will never reach critical mass.

When you break down this latest scandal involving the often-controversial Hurricane program, it seems that if the NCAA doesn’t view this as the breaking point, then no such breaking point will ever come about. Between the prostitution, the drugs, the drinking, the crime, the sex, this Miami scandal is about as bad as it could possibly get. Bounties placed on the heads of opposing quarterbacks? If that doesn’t ring the warning bells, then nothing ever will.

The cash, cars, and tattoos given out as USC and Ohio State are petty crimes compared to what has been going on at “The U” under the intentionally ignorant administration of President (and former UW Chancellor) Donna Shalala and former Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt.

But while many are rightfully placing the blame squarely on the laps of these well-paid and well-off administrators, the implication that this scandal justifies paying college athletes is so far off base it is almost not worth addressing. The fact that this is where the focus has gone is precisely why the national dialogue on college athletes has gotten nowhere.

The time is now for change, but the change is not the kind that’s been often bantered around on the airwaves and in the newsstands.

What the NCAA needs to do is remove the overhanging burden of revenue creation from the job descriptions of college AD’s. As much as football (and basketball, to an extent) has done for the academic standing of many institutions (remember when Boise State was a community college?), it seems we might be getting to a point at which the good football brings, namely money, is not worth the cost to the integrity of the American university system.

Need proof?

The University of Miami is an elite private institution. It features world-renowned Marine and Atmospheric Sciences program, a nationally-acclaimed medical school and hospital system, and one of the best jazz programs in the country. Situated on a gorgeous campus in the swank Miami suburb of Coral Gables, “the U” is a top-notch academic institution.

But the image of “the U” is far from this reality. Drawing upon the images of flashy football stars, scandalous behavior, and a seeming lack of interest in the academics of college shown by a group of players dead set on a beeline for the NFL, many of us less familiar with the University had developed a less than flattering impression of the school even before this latest scandal broke.

Unfortunately, many within the school’s administration have gotten caught up in this false perception, reaping every ounce of its potential monetary rewards. Case in point: while the school has raised undergraduate tuition beyond the $50,000 mark, University administrators continue to pull in checks in the upper 6 and even 7-figures with ease. In 2008 alone, Shalala took home over $1.2 million in compensation, much of it in the form of bonuses given as incentive toward the continuing growth of the donor pool, growth fueled in no small part by the contributions of crooked boosters like now-infamous Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro.

The iconic picture of this scandal, capturing Shapiro at a bowling event with former UM Head Basketball Coach Frank Haith and Shalala (staring down a $50,000 check sitting in her hands), should tell the story and give us a hint as to where we need to go next.

We need to take away the importance of those checks before they corrupt not only the collegiate athletic community, but the entire University system in our country.

Players don’t need to be paid any more than they already are within the confines of the rules and this scandal provides plenty of evidence for this point. However, there does need to be a serious crackdown on the compensation packages offered to administrators and athletic department officials who have taken advantage of the rules and profited enormously from the talents of the students under their authority.

Coaches are no exception either. While his team spent the weekend sulking over an upset loss to Morehead State, Rick Pitino spent the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament getting paid to serve as a studio analyst for TBS. That makes no sense but the answer isn’t to allow players to reap those same rewards, it is to crack down on coaches overextending the benefits of the head coaching position. If players are subject to the confines of NCAA-defined amateurism, then the coaching staffs have to be held at least to a similar standard.

In fact, these coaches and administrators should be held to a higher standard than anyone else. They are responsible for the corruption of the system and they should bear the burden of fixing up this mess.

Program-wide punishment will never serve as deterrence as long as those adults who perpetrate the violations are allowed to walk away on a golden platform, if they are even required to walk away at all.

The only way to start fixing college athletics is to hold each and every coach, administrator, and support staffer fully liable, personally and financially, for the integrity of their program. Whether they knowingly allow violations or not (because they should know even if they don’t), these individuals should face not only the automatic loss of their job, but a fine in the amount of 50% of the compensation they received from and through the university during the time that elapsed between the first proven violation and the time of their dismissal (not resignation, these must be firings).

Unless and until those involved are fired and have paid their fines in full (to a non-athletic scholarship fund at the University), the program in question will be ineligible to compete, period. If further punishment is deemed necessary, then it may be assessed, but for any major violation that is proven, this must be the absolute standard.

In addition, each and every paid professional proven to be knowingly (or intentionally made ignorant of) involved in the process will be barred from ever working for another division one program in any capacity. NO EXCEPTIONS.

That is a deterrent. It is certainly harsh, but it needs to be when it comes to the actions of the very individuals who have for years profited off rules they themselves continue to be in charge of administrating.

By making even those major violations in which the university is left out of the loop potentially destructive to the careers of school officials and coaches, programs will be left without the current option to “turn a blind eye” while also being put in a position in which proactive compliance is a must.

Programs will not only have to evaluate their actions, but also their personnel. Coaches with a history of controversy or corruption? Hire at your own risk. Players potentially connected to agents or prone to accepting illegal benefits? Do your due diligence and don’t recruit potential disasters waiting to happen.

Compliance in this world of strict enforcement would not be easy, but the costs of overlooking even the most minor of holes in the system would far outweigh the potential benefits available to a program from attempting to circumvent the system.

Instead of turning back the dials on NCAA enforcement, we have to turn them up and quick. Payment of players will make the actions of the Miami program more the exception than the norm and I know even Jay Bilas would agree that sex, drugs, and alcohol should not become an everyday part of the student-athlete experience.