D-Day for Kelvin Sampson: Should He Stay, Or Should He Go?

Today marks the deadline for Indiana Athletic Director, Rick Greenspan, to make his decision on the future of the Hoosiers' embattled coach Kelvin Sampson.

IU President, Michael McRobbie, gave Greenspan a week to look into the matter... a job that usually takes the NCAA upwards of 90 days to complete.  That fact alone lead many people, including myself, to believe Indiana already knew what they were going to find during the investigation and what course of action they were going to take.

Recent results on the hardwood, however, could have an impact on the decision reached by Greenspan and McRobbie.

Regardless of wins and losses, what Sampson did is inexcusable.  But, personally, I do not feel that being a part of cell phone calls is worthy of losing your job.  I just don't. 

After what happened at Oklahoma, Sampson was on a short leash.  It was either idiotic or brash of Sampson to continue doing what he knew he was not supposed to do.  Maybe it was a combination of both.

But here is my issue with the NCAA in general.  They are all about making money.  Sure, the NCAA is a business, and businesses are supposed to be about making money.  The problem is, that mindset is transferred down to schools and its officials.

After beating Michigan State and Purdue in the past week and a half, Sampson has the Hoosiers one game out of first place in the surprisingly tough Big Ten. 

If Indiana cares about making money, which they do, why would they want to fire a coach that has the Hoosiers playing as good as the 2002 team that lost to Maryland in the NCAA Championship?

There is plenty of money to be made by Indiana off its men's basketball program if Sampson will have them playing at this level for the foreseeable future.  That has to factor into Greenspan and McRobbie's decision.  It just has to.

Sampson deserves to be punished.  No question about it.  But losing your job over cell phones seems to be a bit extreme.

You can't deny that Sampson wins on the court.  It will be very interesting to see if those wins matter more to Greenspan and Indiana than following rules over cell phone usage.