UConn's "Violations" and the NCAA

On the eve of UConn’s Sweet 16 date with Purdue reports surfaced from Yahoo! that the Huskies were guilty of making too many phone calls to former recruit Nate Miles.

The same Nate Miles who finally did choose to play basketball for Jim Calhoun and UConn but was thrown out of school within his first three months on campus for beating up a female student.

By now you all know what happened, former UConn basketball student manager turned sports agent Josh Nochimson over pursued Miles in attempting get him to attend UConn.

In pursuing Nochimson called Miles and family members of his over 30 times within a month during Miles’ junior year of high school (NCAA regulations allow only one call per month at this time). These aren’t known to be entirely true or false at this time so make sure you don’t jump to a conclusion about anything too quickly.

The problem with the entire situation is that in the realm of things when it comes to NCAA basketball, this is a very minor infraction but the others you don’t hear about are all too often covered up and never made public.

Rumors are made and sure they are just rumors, but in plenty of cases across the country, calling a high school athlete too much during a certain time period ranks way down on my list of concerns.

If this is considered bad then where do players parents being given employment and boosters giving young athletes their own vehicles rank? Things like this have been going on since the day’s of Knute Rockne and don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Don’t get me wrong I feel there are plenty of programs in college athletics that play by the rules and do things the right way.

The problem is that just in baseball when players had to choose between taking steroids or losing a roster spot, there were no immediate penalties against them for taking the illegal drugs.

The same is true in college athletics as the NCAA just hands out slaps on the wrists these days instead of actually doing something productive and making a difference.

In order to make a real difference then a major program needs to be disciplined harshly. A few things I would like to see in what would be a perfect time for change is that instead of sitting back and letting things come to them, the NCAA instead did random investigations to schools of all conferences in division one.

Don’t just wait for a report to come out about a team or coach breaking rules, go find it happening on your own once in a while.

The penalties that are handed out by the NCAA are too lenient in my eyes. What does a coach of a major program have to risk at this time? Perhaps they are put on probation and might lose a scholarship or two for the next year?

Taking away a scholarship or two from a major basketball or football program is like saying you’re on a diet and going to McDonald’s and ordering a Big Mac meal with a Diet Coke to drink. The drink makes you feel good about yourself but really what good is being done?

The same with taking away a scholarship or two, just because a likely bench player or two doesn’t get a scholarship but likely very few in-game minutes are being used by those particular players, do you feel that is really a fair punishment to reprimand a coach or team?

I’m not saying that UConn is guilty of anything that has been reported, even if Jim Calhoun is yet to deny any of the claims when given the opportunity. What I am saying is that the bigger picture shows that the NCAA needs to do much more to prevent future problems from occurring.

Right now far too much is swept under the rug and plenty of casual fans are well aware that far worst is done by coaches and boosters yet nothing is done by the NCAA.

When things are handled by the NCAA it means that they are looked at slightly and then worked around. If the NCAA wanted to feel coaches pressured not to cheat then they need to set a standard that will scare coaches away from doing it.

The corruption that walks hand in hand with college athletics isn’t going away anytime soon because the NCAA refuses to strengthen punishments or go out of their way to try and stop it from happening in the first place. With the NCAA’s lackluster track record don’t expect to see anything change anytime soon.

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