Do college coaches really cheat in football and basketball?

No matter what school it is, there always seem to be rumors circulating that a recruit got paid off or was offered money during the football or basketball recruiting process.  The problem is that we will really never know what schools are paying their players or finding different ways to funnel money to them.  It could be happening all over the place or it could never be happening.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports wrote an article a few weeks back entitled, “NCAA naps during golden age of cheating.”  Throughout the article (Which can be read by clicking here), Wetzel makes some very interesting points about how much money the NCAA is making and yet it seems to be enforcing even less of their major rules.

Here are some interesting parts of the article:

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In basketball, where even NCAA president Myles Brand acknowledges an epidemic of cheating, there hasn’t been a major infractions decision since Oct. 12, 2006 when Kansas was caught for improprieties.  Not since July 11, 2007, when Oklahoma got nabbed for players having no-show jobs, has there been one in major college football.

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If they really seemed to care about this epidemic, there is no doubt in my mind that the NCAA would have agents at the big schools where programs seem to be rapidly occurring.

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The NCAA has expanded its staff of investigators (its cops) to an all-time high of 20. It now has its infractions committee (its judge and jury) meet as often as seven times per year. Still, it hasn’t been this feeble at catching crooks since a 16-month stretch ending in 1962. Back then, it had one investigator.  “The NCAA and its enforcement staff (are) committed to protecting the integrity of college athletics,” spokesperson Stacey Osburn said. “While the information that leads to investigations often occurs in cycles, there are currently a number of open investigations for programs of all sizes – large and small – that illustrate the NCAA’s commitment to integrity on and off the field.”

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So what exactly are all twenty of those people doing?  If they are protecting the integrity of college athletics, more schools would be busted and coaches would be kicked out of the game.

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In 2006, Auburn sociology professor Jim Gundlach detailed a case of academic fraud to The New York Times. Athletes, mostly football players, were flocking to a “directed-reading” program run by a professor notorious for handing out A’s while requiring little to no class work.

The NCAA once considered academic fraud a most egregious act, one that violated its core principle of educating student-athletes.  “We (had) people who couldn’t put together complete sentences going out there saying they had a sociology degree from Auburn University,” Gundlach said.

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This SEC power gets in little to no trouble for something so major?  Helping the football players may be fine for them during college but what are they going to do after if they don’t go pro?  Degree or not, they are going to have a tough time getting a job.

My thoughts on the situation is this.  I know that all college coaches will push the rules.  They know ways to get past compliance officers where they can watch an open gym, workout more players than they are supposed, and have more coaches around than they should.  While the NCAA says it is illegal for coaches to watch open gyms, do you really think that it doesn’t happen?

Here are two interesting items that break the rules but it may not really be hurting all that much.  The first is with open gyms.  I know a Division I coaching staff that basically has a hiding spot where they can watch open gyms and no one can see them.  They tested this spot to make sure that if the compliance officer or someone who get them in trouble walks in, they either won’t be seen or could leave at that time.

The second is also in college basketball but relates to coaches.  Schools have so many different rules about what coaches are able to go onto the floor and coach.  One school hired a great basketball coach as their strength and conditioning coach.  While he will be doing that, the program did hire him to coach and help there.  He can get on the court and doesn’t have to worry about rules and regulations that way.  Is that legal?  Possibly, but they are definitely pushing the envelope there.