State of the Union for College Athletics

    One major topic in the sports world is college coaching scandals.  There seems to be a lot in the last couple years, and I don’t believe it’s by accident.  Coaching scandals have been going on for years and years, but within the last 5 years of the social media outlets more and more coaches have been caught red handed.  This topic is one of great debate and many reasons behind it.

 

            Look at the coaches that have been caught recently.  Bruce Pearl, Lane Kiffin, Jim Tressel, Pete Carroll, and that’s just to name a few.  Those coaches were all caught within the last year.  This isn’t like these are low level colleges and no one has ever heard of them.  These are big name schools (Tennessee, USC, Ohio State), and big named coaches.  Many National Championships have came from those schools in football and basketball, and now people have to wonder how many of them were done illegally.  Recent scandals have been: paying athletes, giving away cars and houses to family members of the athlete, hosting parties for recruits, illegally calling recruits, hiding the fact that the athletes are selling merchandise for money, improper benefits, and the list goes on.  These scandals have blown up within the last 5 years and social media is the main source of it.

 

            Social media consists of facebook, myspace, twitter, and blogs like this one.  No one anywhere is safe or hidden from views or viewpoints that can harm others.  No longer can a coach illegally call a recruit or give the recruit money and not see it on facebook in the coming weeks.  Bruce Pearl for crying out loud got caught with his recruits due to pictures on facebook.  Coaches can’t hide illegal conduct anymore, and it’s affecting not only football and basketball, but the institution itself. Each year there are high expectations on big named programs to succeed and do well for the school.  They’re jobs literally rely on that.  The further you go into postseason tournaments and the more fans you can get to the games the more money for not only the coaches, but for the institution.  There’s a lot of pressure riding on that.  So these coaches are working feverishly to get the big recruits to help build the program to that level that helps the school and the team.  Problem is once one coach does it illegally almost all have to follow suit land their prized recruit.  If you have a recruit that wants to play for you, and you’re recruiting him hard you feel good.  What’s happening is a sleezy coach from another school is coming in and offering that very kid you want money, cars, watches, cell phones, etc.  If you’re an 18 year old kid and you have someone offering you all that what else do you expect them to do?  They’re 18 years old and all that stuff is attractive to them.  Ask yourself what you would do in that situation?  Now the clean program loses the recruit because he won’t play that dirty and game he loses that recruit.  Take 3-5 other kids out of the same class, prized recruits and you work on getting them.  Well, the same dirty program offers the kids the same thing they did to the other recruit, money, houses, jewls, phones, and of course they’re going to attend the dirty institution.  Now running a clean program you’re left without any big named kids, you’re having a lousy season below .500, and the seats sit empty.  There’s no post season tournament or games eligible because you’re below .500 and don’t qualify.  The same dirty program though is succeeding.  They’re beating teams left and right.  They’re flashy and fun to watch.  Stadiums are sold out, memerobila is sold out, tournament games are coming and the school is racking up millions and millions of bucks.  Everyone is happy there and good times are ahead for the dirty program.  Now with their success it’s easier to land big recruits.  If you’re a big named highly scouted 18 year old and a big program with a lot of recent success is recruiting you, and one who has been struggling and not going anywhere is too you’re going to choose the big program and succeed.  Now the coaches at the schools that are struggling are seeing the only way to keep your job and be successful is do the same cheating ways the others are doing just to stay ahead.  Now you’re becoming relevant and getting recruits, but you’re doing it just as dirty as the others.

 

            See the trend here.  That’s what’s happening in college sports today as you read this.  Now, I’m not saying every program is like this, but majority are and just haven’t been caught yet.  Social Media out there is playing huge role in catching these coaches, and the big time programs are getting penalized and coaches are getting fired and struggling to find work.  No one wants to hire a cheater that has been caught.  It looks bad on the fan base and the program.  Ask Kelvin Sampson how his coaching search is coming along?  Indiana is a great example.  They were falling off the map in Davis’ end of the road.  IU hires Sampson and he lands big named recruits.  Early success got the Indiana nation going and thought it was back.  Everyone loved Sampson and thought the world of him.  1 problem, he got caught doing illegal recruiting practices.  He lost his job and IU is no longer relevant.  They cleaned house and brought in a good coach in Tom Crean and he’s doing things the right way.  They may struggle, but he’s not going to illegally get guys and lose his job and really get IU in a huge mess.  Everyone is saying he’s no good, fire him, IU is awful and will never win again, blah, blah, blah.  So I ask you fans, what do you want?  You complain about cheating and put it all over social media saying it’s wrong blast the coach out of his job, hire someone in new.  Once you hire in someone new who won’t cheat or participate in anything close to that you want him fired, and want someone with immediate success.  You see the trend.

 

            Until College athletics pretty much blows this thing up and put stricter rules and basically starts over this is what you’ve got.  A bunch of dirty programs winning and succeeding and a bunch of morally right coaches and institutions losing games and losing jobs.