TDG News 3-12-08
Drakes—well a ton of news today—almost more than ever—or should I say from the past couple weeks. There is the
Sampson scandal, a great NY Times series on athletic scholarships, the Florida State recruiting issue, and a great
article showing how a 2.0 GPA did not do in the Drake University basketball team—which of course is very
successful this year. Kudos to our founder and former TDG Executive Director, Jon Ericson for getting it done at
Drake. It can be done, and should be done—on every campus.
Also below is some info on the upcoming CSRI conference which of course is where we are holding the TDG annual
meeting and the Robert Maynard Hutchins Award Luncheon. I am pleased to announce that Professor James
Gundlach of Auburn University has been named the 2008 recipient of this prestigious award. You may remember
that Jim was a key and courageous figure in uncovering academic improprieties at Auburn University involving
college athletes. A formal press release will be sent out soon detailing specifics on the Award and Jim Gundlach.
Please make plans to attend to the conference if you have not already. Remember we will be discussing several
things at the annual meeting including voting on the 2008-09 Executive Board, the new fees structure, and other
important business concerning revising our proposals.
Speaking of voting—I need to remind myself of my promise I made last year. I am very busy with promotion and
tenure, other family and work issues, and perhaps most acutely- a potential upcoming federal court trial in which I
am the plaintiff--that I do not feel I can continue effectively as Executive Director at this point. So I will officially step
down as Director at the April meeting and I look forward to working hard with the Executive Committee as a very
active ex-officio member for the foreseeable future. Now this does not mean I may not seek the position at some
point again, or that I will do any less. The mission of TDG is too important and I plan on being active as long as I can
or as long as it is needed, so I imagine that will be for a very, very long time. It is also important to get some new and
fresh leadership with new ideas so the organization is not defined by one or two people.
We are moving in exciting directions with new membership recruiting, positioning ourselves to have a full-time
operation, fundraising, marketing, and greater involvement of students and athletes—just to name a few. So it is an
exciting time for someone to move into the Executive Director position or the Executive Committee—so please
consider it or consider nominating someone for the committee of the Director position.
More than anything—and I will say this again and again—it has been an honor and a privilege to do this and serve
TDG and the mission. I look forward to working with the new Director and further the mission and direction of TDG.
As always—Keep up the Fight!!!
Dave
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Letter from CSRI:
Dear Colleagues:
Thank you to everyone who has registered for the upcoming College Sport Research Institute’s 2008 Scholarly
Conference on College Sport (http://csri.memphis.edu ). The response from faculty, students, sport practitioners,
and the public to the conference has been exceedingly gratifying. As a result of this response, both on-campus
hotels are now sold out.
However, we have made arrangements with the nearby (1.5 miles) Doubletree Hotel East Memphishttp://www.
doubletreememphis.com for an additional block of rooms at the conference rate of $119.00/night. This room rate
(king or 2 doubles) is good until March 26.
The Doubletree Hotel East Memphis – located at 5069 Sanderlin Avenue - is a full-service hotel with a bar and
restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have a shuttle service to and from the airport from 6:
30AM-10:30PM. We will also be making arrangements for an early morning shuttle to The University of Memphis
campus each day (Thursday – Saturday). To make a reservation you can go online at http://www.
doubletreememphis.com or call (901) 767-6666 OR 1-800-445-8667. Make sure to say you are with the "Issues in
College Sport Conference."
Thank you and feel free to contact me with any questions.
Carrie Sordel
CSRI Business Office Manager
901-678-5209
COMMENTARY
Rhodes Scholar says FSU's cheating was no secret
Mike Bianchi, SPORTS COMMENTARY,February 27, 2008
What you are about to read are the most cutting comments yet concerning the ongoing academic scandal at Florida
State.
They are comments filled with frustration and tinged with condemnation. They blame the academic quagmire not so
much on the students caught cheating but on a university bureaucracy and NCAA administrators who continue to
perpetuate the academic shell game that pervades college athletics.
And here's the most damning part of all: These comments didn't come from some mudslinging sports columnist or
some hoity-toity Harvard professor. And they weren't pulled off a University of Florida fan message board.
These comments are so cutting not because they came from some perceived enemy, but because they came from
within. They came from Garrett Johnson, arguably the most decorated scholar-athlete in FSU history -- a young man
who truly loves his university and feels a "debt of gratitude" for the opportunity FSU provided him.
"This [academic misconduct] is concerning not because of the negative attention it has brought on Florida State, but
because it wasn't a secret," says Johnson, an FSU Rhodes Scholar who is currently in grad school at Oxford
University in England. "People knew what was going on. For people in the institution to take the position that they
were unaware of the situation is untrue.
"I can't list specific allegations. I can't say who knew what. I'm just saying it was no secret. It's sort of like the Mitchell
Report in baseball where the players are the ones being accused of taking steroids when everybody involved in
baseball knew it was happening."
These comments are both refreshingly unfiltered and disquietingly unsettling. You see, Garrett Johnson is not just
some disgruntled jock popping off about something he knows nothing about. If we listen to anybody about the plight
of the "athlete-student" then it should be a true "student-athlete." Who better to judge what's wrong with the system
than an athlete who did right by the system?
Johnson is certainly that. He was the NCAA shot put champion and the team captain who led the Seminoles to their
first men's track and field title in 2006. He also happens to be only the second Rhodes Scholar in FSU history. He
graduated magna cum laude in just three years with a double major in political science and English. For two years,
he served as president of the FSU Student-Athlete Advisory Council.
"I have greatly benefited from my relationships and mentorships at Florida State," Johnson says. "I have nothing but
deep respect for those who have helped me along the way, but there are problems. And to brush those problems
under the rug is to perpetuate them.
"My purpose in providing criticism of the academic/athletic balance at the NCAA and Florida State is because I want
to look out for student-athletes and protect their best interest. . . . I don't want to see student-athletes take the fall
for this. This is all systemic and part of the culture of the NCAA, and it doesn't just happen at Florida State. It
happens at almost every major Division I-A school. It's sad, but that's the reality of the beast."
Johnson is right. The entire system is rife with rhetoric. You want to know what the real scandal is at Florida State?
It's not tutors who gave athletes the answers to an exam in an online music course. No, the scandal is that tutors
were actually needed in such an easy class.
Let's get real here. Isn't the dirtiest little untold story in college sports about how universities spend millions of dollars
on "academic support" to keep woefully under-performing students eligible for competition? Why else would a school
like Florida State need to employ nine full-time staff members and dozens and dozens of tutors?
Many schools will tell you their academic support staffs report to university deans, but in reality they are bankrolled
by the athletic department. Now ask yourself: Are academic counselors and tutors really going to bite the hand that
funds them?
It's a never-ending circle. The academic-support staff is subsidized by the athletic department, which is funded by
the football program, which is populated with star players who desperately need academic-support to stay eligible.
Then, of course, there's the ultimate hypocrisy: That these marginal students, who badly need to concentrate on
their studies, instead spend most of their time concentrating on their sport. Which is why they end up in cupcake
online music courses in the first place.
Johnson, for one, doesn't seem to think the NCAA or his own university will change much even in the wake of the
ongoing academic scandal.
"I believe it is in the interest of self-preservation to perpetuate the status quo, despite the current rhetorical position
taken by FSU and the NCAA," Johnson wrote in an e-mail "If academics REALLY take priority, I suggest athletic
administrators and coaches demonstrate this by reducing their salaries to create parity with the tenured professors
that work to prepare their athletes for long-term success. This would REALLY send a message."
It's no secret that the entire academic/athletic structure at big-time college football and basketball programs is
inherently fraudulent.
You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that.
But the message is much more meaningful if you happen to be one.
Athlete tutoring is not just a concern at Florida State
Schools across the country run the risks of tutors bending the rules to better athletes' grade-point
averages.
Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel, 19 February 2008
See also, FSU Report to NCAA at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/media/acrobat/2008-02/35797269.pdf
Before the 2006-07 school year, Florida State's academic support office for student-athletes issued a 31-page
handbook to its tutors. Its first sentence read, "Welcome to the Athletic Academic Support Program, winner of the
1996 Athletic Management Magazine 'Award of Excellence' for having the best academic support program in the
country!"
The handbook, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel through state public-records laws, spelled out the department's
regulations. Compliance officials even met with tutors to discuss NCAA rules.
Infractions happened anyway, an FSU report to the NCAA shows. Brenda Monk, the department's assistant director,
supplied the answers to online exams, asked one athlete to complete an online exam for another athlete and typed
papers for athletes. Also, a tutor shouted out answers as athletes took online exams.
Monk and the tutor told university officials that they acted on their own. But to some observers of college sports, the
infractions at FSU are symptomatic of a larger nationwide problem. The critics argue that the NCAA and its member
schools perpetuate an academic support culture centered on keeping athletes eligible that inherently leads to
bending the rules.
"In a system where gaining a competitive edge is so important to coaches being able to maintain their jobs, these
kinds of shortcuts are things that become more available as an option," said Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports
management and media at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y., and a former athletic director at Hobart and William Smith
Colleges.
"I don't want to suggest that there are bad people working in the system. I think that the system has so many flaws
that it becomes very difficult not to cut corners on a variety of things."
Staurowsky has labeled academic support programs as another "cottage industry" with college sports, and at FSU,
the department has a budget this year of just more than $1 million.
In the late 1960s, FSU had just one academic counselor for student-athletes, and that counselor at the time was the
school's current president, T.K. Wetherell.
In 1975, when the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A) held its first national convention,
just 15 people took part. Now, the organization has around 950 members.
NCAA requires tutoring
NCAA Bylaw 16.3.1.1 requires all Division I schools to make "general academic counseling and tutoring services"
available to all student-athletes. At the end of the 2006-07 school year, the NCAA distributed $19.8 million out of its
Academic Enhancement Fund to its Division I members -- $60,000 to each school -- for academic support programs.
Florida State started the 2006-07 school year with nine full-time staff members in its Athletic Academic Support
Services (AASS) program and would employ approximately 57 tutors that spring. AASS is housed in the second floor
of the Moore Athletic Center, and has a 32-station computer lab, 10 private tutorial rooms, the use of two 50-seat
classrooms and a five-station learning center for athletes with learning deficiencies or disabilities.
Those amenities and the department itself were described in detail over two pages in FSU's 2007 football media
guide. The write-up noted that 14 Seminoles recently had been named district academic All-Americans and that 204
FSU student-athletes made the Atlantic Coast Conference's 2007 honor roll. In addition, the team grade-point
average during the Spring 2007 semester was 2.80.
Wetherell has since called AASS a "paper tiger," a group not nearly as successful as its honors would indicate.
"The academic support program has won all kinds of awards," Wetherell said. "And so you're sitting there saying on
paper, how did this [academic fraud] thing happen? But then you start looking and you realize it's a paper tiger.
There was a lot of paper tigers over there."
About 60 FSU student-athletes received or will receive some form of suspension. In addition, the school put its
teams on probation for two years, while some teams will lose scholarships. The NCAA may add further sanctions.
FSU isn't alone in promoting its academic support program to gain an edge in recruiting. Schools within the
Sunshine State -- including Florida, Miami, UCF and USF -- devoted at least one page in their 2007 football media
guides to their own academic support services.
Florida's program, within the Office of Student Life, has an annual budget of about $1.5 million to $1.7 million
including salaries, said Keith Carodine, the school's associate athletic director for academic affairs. UCF's program,
the office of Academic Services for Student-Athletes, has a budget of about $700,000, said its director, Mark
Gumble.
The current president of the N4A, Phil Hughes, says elaborate academic advising programs for athletes are
necessary. Hughes, the associate athletic director for student services at Kansas State, notes that the NCAA
requires athletes to have better grades to remain eligible than the general student body needs to stay in school.
"These students are required to dedicate four to five hours per day every day to represent the university in that
sport, and then the question is how does that youngster compete successfully in the classroom when all the other
students have four to five hours more to study?" Hughes said. "The visibility of the athletes' academic standing is so
much greater, and the university has a much greater investment than they do with the other students. If any other
student decides to flunk out of 'University X,' no one [in the media] cares."
Critics call for reform
B. David Ridpath doesn't buy Hughes' argument. Ridpath is a professor in sports administration at Ohio University
and serves as the executive director of The Drake Group, a collection of college educators that lobbies for NCAA
reforms. He also once worked at Marshall University as its assistant athletic director for compliance and student
services.
He calls academic support departments "academic eligibility centers" and wants departments nationwide to report to
their schools' academic administrations instead of their athletic departments.
"There's pressure on those academic advisors to the point where your job rests on whether this kid is academically
eligible," Ridpath said. "I've seen some of the best succumb to the pressure."
The N4A doesn't advocate any specific reporting structure. Some schools' academic support departments report to
their athletic directors. Others report to an academic dean. Others have a dual reporting relationship.
Mark Meleney, the former director of FSU's academic support program whose contract was not renewed because of
the scandal, reported directly to the school's dean of undergraduate studies. But the funding for his department
comes out of the athletic department budget.
The director of University of Florida's Office of Student Life (OSL) reports directly to Athletic Director Jeremy Foley
and also reports indirectly to the school's provost, Janie Fouke. Tutors must have a faculty recommendation and
good grades to be hired, and athletes complete surveys on tutors' conduct each semester. At night, OSL's full-time
staff members and graduate interns go from room to room and observe tutoring sessions.
At UCF, the office of Academic Services for Student-Athletes (ASSA) reports directly to the school's associate vice
president for academic development and retention, Mark Allen Poisel.
ASSA hires undergraduates and graduate students to serve as tutors, typically at rates between $7.50 and $11 per
hour, Gumble said. Tutors must have received an 'A' or 'B' in the course, and those tutors receive regular
evaluations from athletic academic advisers and athletes.
There are other rules, too. ASSA employees and tutors are not allowed to even hold a pen or a pencil when they
work with athletes on papers.
"We are always talking about NCAA rules each time we're meeting" with the tutors, Gumble said. "We're not going to
keep a risk of having someone who's not doing the right thing."
Yet even Hughes, the president of the N4A, acknowledges that there's no defense for a rogue tutor.
"Whatever the best practices," Hughes said, "there is no foolproof system that can prevent a tutor doing something
wrong after hours, on a weekend, outside of our program.
"If you're going to offer tutoring programs to athletes, unless it's by robot, you have inherent risks that you have to
understand and manage to the best of your responsibility."
Sentinel staff writer Andrew Carter contributed to this report.
Sean Keeler, “Drake proves academic rule requiring 2.0 not a problem,” The Sunday Des Moines
Register, February 3, 2008, 1C
I'm happy for Dolph and that goofy leather suit. I'm happy for the bluebloods at Drake who've had tickets since
Truman and sat through more losses than the French Army. This is for them.
I'm happy for the students, who now have something to rally behind in the dead of winter. I'm happy for Bulldog
alums scattered across the globe, who've been calling and e-mailing one another, giddy with delight, after each
heart-stopping victory. I'm happy for the guys on that '69 Final Four team, who so badly want some company up
there on the pedestal of greats.
I'm happy for the players, the coaches, the staffers, and the families who know their sacrifices first-hand. I'm happy
for athletic director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. I'm happy for Tom Davis, who's watching what might be his best rebuilding
job ever bear the most wonderful, unexpected fruits.
Above all, I'm happy for the 2.0 rule. Because it's funny how nobody talks about it anymore.
Nobody talks about how it was supposed to destroy men's basketball on Forest Avenue. Nobody talks about how, by
requiring students to maintain at least a 'C' average in order to participate in extracurricular activities, including
sports, it would consign Drake hoops to a tomb of perpetual irrelevance.
"People are finally buying into the notion that students can have balance - they can be students and they can be
athletes," says Wanda Everage, Drake's vice provost for student affairs and academic excellence. "And my own
personal belief is that if you expect students to do well, they will."
Can we finally put it to rest now? The 2.0 rule - tougher than the NCAA minimum standard, tougher than the rest of
the Missouri Valley Conference - wasn't the problem. It was just another convenient excuse. A lousy crutch.
"When you have the 2.0 rule, it's only when you're trying to use junior-college players as Band-Aids that it hurts
you," Billy Cundiff says. The Kansas City Chiefs kicker played — sparingly — on the Drake men's basketball team
between 1999-2001, when furor over the 2.0 rule was at a fever pitch.
"If I (missed) a class, I had professors calling my dorm room, asking where I was. They want to see people get good
grades. They're not looking to flunk people out."
But people flunked anyway. In January 2001, four Drake basketball players were declared ineligible because of the
2.0 rule. Two, Lamont Evans and Dontaie Smith, were found to have been failing courses and not attending classes.
When they took the university to court, the revelations that followed were an embarrassment for all parties involved.
In hindsight, Cundiff insists, the rule was never the issue. Former coach Kurt Kanaskie was never the issue. But the
guys he recruited — many from junior-colleges — were.
"(Kanaskie) can coach," Cundiff says. "They just didn't do it the right way. Keno Davis has done a great job by
recruiting players that, first and foremost, want to be at Drake. No. 2, they're good student-athletes. Before, there
might have been better talent, but there's no way they wanted to spend their winters in Des Moines, Iowa. They were
bringing guys in from Sacramento, California, they're bringing guys in from New York City — guys who didn't want to
be in Des Moines."
It wasn't about the finding the right talent. It was about finding the right fit.
When you haven't been in the top 25 for three decades, people start to ask questions, some out of nothing more
than mere spite. Has Drake lightened its academic standards? Have the Bulldogs done away with the 2.0 rule? Are
they selling their souls for a sliver of glory?
Jean Berger invites the skeptics to sniff around all they like. Berger, Drake's associate director of athletics and
senior women's administrator, says the men's basketball team GPA is "much higher now" than it was a decade ago,
when the 2.0 rule was enacted as a response to the academic failings of men's basketball players under coach
Rudy Washington.
"I think Dr. Tom's staff and Keno's staff and, in particular, (assistant) Justin Ohl, they've done a great job presenting
to our young men that ... it's important, you need to pay attention to it," Berger says. "You have a choice: You can
bang your head against the wall and complain about it, or we can make this work. And they really did make it work."
Structurally, she says, not much has changed over the past 10 years. The NCAA's new eligibility rules, which raised
the minimums across the country closer to Drake's, have helped somewhat.
So has time. Old wounds have healed. New faces have worked in tandem to repair bridges that once were badly
burned. Credit former athletic director Dave Blank and Hatfield Clubb, his successor. Credit the Davises, young and
old alike.
"I've been so impressed just how the people in the faculty and in the provost's office have just absolutely been very
welcoming, very helpful," Hatfield Clubb says. "I think they have a lot of faith in us."
Faith that's been rewarded. And returned in kind.
"I think a lot of our faculty are fans," says Dr. Renae Chesnut, an associate dean at the Drake College of Pharmacy
and Health Sciences. "And we're happy when any of our students have success, whether it's in leadership positions
they take on, the sports that they're in, or music, the arts, whatever environment they're in. We're enjoying the ride."
And what a ride. Between November 2006 and Saturday morning, Drake has had its cake and eaten it, too: A record
of 36 victories and 16 losses, national headlines and academic integrity. The Bulldogs have already clinched back-
to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1985-87, and Cundiff, frankly, is a little jealous.
Oh, sure, he's loving it, watching from afar like so many others, the sellouts, the torrent of 3-pointers, the NCAA
Tournament talk. But he's envious, too. After all, when he was on the bench, the Bulldogs' student section was
quieter than a Dennis Kucinich rally.
He recalls one game where the undergrads were supposed to be given McDonald's hamburgers as a promotion,
only to find there was more meat in the buns than in the stands.
"We're in the huddle and (the trainer) tells me to look behind me. And there's the (ineligible) guys in street clothes
on our bench, eating the hamburgers they were handing out to the crowd," Cundiff says. "We're like, 'Dude, we are
not a good basketball school.' "
That was then. This is now.
Bliss, Bears coach during scandal, talks about cheating, hurting others
B.G. Brooks, Denver Rocky Mountain News, 27 February 2008
Of the many ironies in a sordid story brimming with them, this might be the most stunning: Throughout his career,
Dave Bliss envisioned coaching at a church-affiliated school as a final stop.
He got his wish.
But in their darkest, most fitful dreams, neither Bliss nor Baylor University, the world's largest Baptist school, could
have imagined what would make his stop in Waco, Texas, his last.
Five years after what might be foremost among college basketball's most horrific scandals, Bliss is searching for
restoration and reclamation, striving to stitch his life - his coaching career appears on permanent hold - back
together.
As for the lives and the institution left in disarray during the last of his four seasons in Waco, Bliss said in an
interview with the Rocky Mountain News, "I messed up and I hurt a lot of people. I mean, I really messed up. . . .
"I cheated because I was weak. I'm not in denial; I cheated. I take responsibility and, unfortunately, the
consequences have really been terrific. . . . If I take my situation and I cower, and I go off into the hills, which is what
your instinct is to do, that's not what I need to do."
Bliss, 64, believes there is a need for communication with coaches and anyone else who will listen on two fronts: the
spiritual and the ethical.
At the NCAA Final Four in San Antonio (April 4-8), he is scheduled to address coaches at an Athletes in Action
function, speaking to the snares that unraveled his college career after previous stops at three other Division I
schools (Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, New Mexico).
The program Bliss left in shambles appears well into a post-scandal revival. Baylor, which visits Colorado tonight,
opened strong under fourth-year coach Scott Drew, climbed into the Top 25 and, depending on how it finishes,
could be headed for the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, with the choice effectively made for him by the NCAA infractions committee, Bliss is trying to transition
from hoops coach to hopes coach.
"I can encourage a lot of people who have messed up that God is faithful. Every day is a new day. . . . I didn't find
God; I knew God all the time. I just forgot Him," said Bliss, now the president and co-founder of Interactive
Occupational Training Inc., a 2-year-old Lakewood company that describes itself as an entrant in the "Web-based
training industry."
"I think we're all on the road every day (to being better)," Bliss said. "I've been spanked; I can get better or bitter."
Major violations
Bliss' world began to fragment with the murder of Baylor junior forward Patrick Dennehy by teammate Carlton
Dotson in 2003. The investigation led to revelations that included Bliss trying to persuade assistant coaches and
players to depict Dennehy as a drug dealer who used drug money to help pay his tuition.
No criminal charges were filed against Bliss, but in the wake of Dennehy's death, Baylor's internal investigation of
the men's basketball program uncovered major NCAA violations that included Bliss paying the tuition of two players
(Dennehy was one), a drug-test coverup and assorted examples of players receiving "extra benefits" from Bliss and
his staff. The school also was cited for "lack of institutional control."
Bliss declined to talk on the record about Dennehy, Dotson or the drug test coverup cited in the school's
investigation.
Of paying the players' tuition, Bliss said he believed he could "find them financial aid, have them get loans, money
from their parents, something like that. But you can't make that decision like that.
"You've got to do the groundwork, apply for loans. I didn't pay for their scholarships until May because I was trying to
find some way to write the thing off - to have it done legitimately. This is where I really sold myself a bill of goods . . ."
On a campus where walking the right path is considered paramount, Bliss, a lifelong Baptist, inexplicably wandered
and took his program with him.
On Aug. 8, 2003, he resigned under pressure.
Athletic director Tom Stanton, whom Bliss said was a primary reason for coming to Baylor, also resigned the same
day, believing he was accountable for the debacle in his department.
Until his final year at Baylor (2002-03), Bliss contended he had "done it right" - or stayed within NCAA rules - while
heading the basketball programs at Oklahoma, SMU and New Mexico. But he noted of his nine years at SMU, "We
went through a very tough time . . . because the boosters there were very proactive."
Center Jon Koncak, Bliss' best player at SMU and the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft, told the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram he received illegal payments from boosters while at the school.
Bliss' response: "He's said so many different things. . . . I know how he was recruited, and he never was recruited
that way. What happened afterwards, I have no idea. We did try to do it right at every stop."
Then came the last one.
Student of Knight
When Baylor called, offering a competitive upgrade in the Big 12 Conference and about $600,000 (nearly twice his
New Mexico salary), Bliss listened hard and responded quickly.
Under former coach Harry Miller, the Bears had gone 56-87 in five seasons. Bliss had every right to believe he could
do better.
Throughout his playing and coaching career, success was his sidekick.
Bliss, born in Binghamton, N.Y., was bright, athletically gifted and driven. He received an Ivy League education,
earning undergraduate and MBA degrees from Cornell. He stood out in basketball (an all-league guard) and
baseball (all-league, captain of the team), eventually entering Cornell's athletic hall of fame.
He also gained membership in the prestigious Sphinx Head Society, which cites Cornell students for strength of
character and dedication to leadership. And he began accumulating impeccable basketball credentials, breaking
into coaching as an assistant under Bob Knight at Army (1967 to 1969), then joining Knight's Indiana staff in 1971
for a five-year stint during which Bliss said he was worked "unmercifully."
The hard labor left a permanent mark. Bliss named his first son, Robert, after his mentor, whom he called "the best
there is." And he never forgot Knight saying if a team played hard enough to win one game, it was up to the coach
to ensure it would play that hard in every game.
But once in Waco, Bliss dismissed Knight's all-important take on preserving the game's integrity. Schooled long
enough by Knight to have the same core feeling, Bliss admitted during his final season at Baylor, "I capitulated."
Why? Cheating, Bliss said, is "a performance-enhancing drug. People don't need to cheat; I didn't need to cheat.
Why do we do it? Our obsession to try and better our situations. . . .
"When you don't coach at the great schools, you have to work harder and explore every opportunity to survive and
improve. And a lot of that means (working in) gray areas, areas that aren't illegal but haven't been traversed very
often.
"You try to create different advantages - not cheating, but pretty soon the gray area goes to the illegal area. And
that's what happened to me."
Regrets hurting others
Though he concedes his recent past puts him in no position to be judgmental, Bliss believes the same "gray to
illegal" swing is occurring more frequently at every level in sports.
Citing examples in the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball and college athletics, he said a "crisis of integrity" is
rampant, fueled by external pressures on coaches to succeed and internal pressures to gratify what he calls "the
applause of man - trying to please people.
"Man knows right from wrong, I don't care where he is in his faith. What happens is, the other issues play off that.
But the basic issue of right and wrong does not depend on religion.
"I made just an absolutely careless decision. I understand why I did it. I feel badly that I did it because I hurt people
that I'll never know. My family (wife Claudia, sons Robert and Jeff, daughter Berkeley) has suffered in ways I'll never
know . . . that's the ripple effect, and that's why it was so selfish.
"But I also believe that God will take care of all of them."
Widely portrayed after the Baylor scandal as representing all that is insidious in sports, Bliss said he "started to
analyze how I had changed, how I had gotten ambitious, how prideful I was, how I felt entitled. . . .
"What has been interesting to me is that after a period of time and I had read all the bad things said about me, I
didn't agree with them. I was way worse than the face in that picture."
Time for reflection
Since leaving Baylor, Bliss has held one coaching job, spending a season with the CBA's Dakota Wizards before
realizing "coaching was not where I needed to be. I needed to get my life in order . . . get a direction that was not
about me."
He takes exception to reports identifying him as a volunteer assistant at Green Mountain High School during his son
Jeff's senior season. Bliss said he "never scouted for them, never did anything" other than watch practice because
his afternoons were free and former coach Bruce Dick was a close friend.
After settling in Lakewood, Bliss said he has kept a low-profile: "I go to work, come home, walk the dogs, go to
church on Sunday . . . I take care of what's important," which includes occasionally accompanying Denver radio
personality Irv Brown, a longtime friend, on visits to area correctional facilities to offer encouragement.
Bliss quotes the opening sentence of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, a best-seller in the Christian
community: " 'It's not about you.' " But in a time of reflection and introspection, it is a line he believes defines his final
season at Baylor, when it was all about him.
"Coaches live for the applause," Bliss said. "I say this coach did. And it wasn't that I was a great coach. . . . Some
people wouldn't understand what I've been through. And I don't say it wanting sympathy or anything else. It's the last
thing I think I deserve.
"I can't even believe who I was for a period of time. But that doesn't have to be the epitaph."
Bliss by the numbers
School (seasons) W L Pct. Postseason
Oklahoma (5) 77 62 .554 1 NCAA
Southern Methodist (8) 142 101 .584 3 NCAA/1 NIT
New Mexico (11) 246 108 .695 7 NCAA/3 NIT
Baylor (4) 61 57 .517 1 NIT
Totals (28) 526 328 .616 11 NCAA/5 NIT
The Scholarship Divide
Recruits Clamor for More From Coaches With Less
Bill Pennington, New York Times sedition, 11 March 2008
The country’s celebrity college football and basketball coaches lead nationally ranked teams on television,
controlling a bevy of full scholarships and a sophisticated marketing machine that swathes college athletics with an
air of affluence. They are far from typical.
More common is the soccer, lacrosse or softball coach who sits in a closet-sized office beside a $100 air conditioner
and a 12-inch TV, trying to figure out ways to buy the best athlete possible for the least amount of scholarship
money, which can be as little as $400. A jack of all trades, this coach has a job that requires the skills of a stock
portfolio manager, labor lawyer, headhunter, family counselor and soothsayer.
“There have been days when you feel like a used-car salesman,” said Joe Godri, the baseball coach at Villanova
University. “I’ve always been completely honest, but you can’t get away from the fact that the process can be crazy.
You pump up a kid so much to come to your place, and when he agrees, you say, ‘O.K., and what I’ve got for you is
25 percent of your cost to attend here.’
“And no one believes you, but that’s a good Division I baseball scholarship. You have to convince his parents that
you’re being really fair.”
The current cost to attend Villanova is nearly $45,000 a year, and it has cost more than $35,000 since 2003. The
average N.C.A.A. Division I baseball scholarship, compiled from 2003-4 statistics obtained from the N.C.A.A., is
worth $7,069.
“It’s like we have a salary cap from the professional sports model,” said Godri, whose baseball program can dole out
the equivalent of six full scholarships across four years. “Except we’re dealing in thousands, not millions, and we
have to stretch it across 25 or 30 kids.”
Working against these college coaches is a perception in the hyper and driven youth sports culture that scholarship
money is plentiful. Online recruiting services and private counselors promote the notion that some athletic
scholarships go unclaimed.
In interviews with more than 20 college coaches and administrators at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I
institutions, Villanova and the University of Delaware, the coaches said they routinely encountered parents with an
almost irrational desire to have their children earn some kind of athletic scholarship. Sometimes the amount is
irrelevant, so long as the child can attend his or her high school’s national letter of intent signing day and be feted in
the local newspapers as a scholarship athlete.
“Parents say to me all the time: ‘Can’t you just throw her something? Just make her feel good,’ ” said Joanie Milhous,
the Villanova field hockey coach. “I have to explain I don’t have money to throw around. I think these families have
just invested so much in private lessons, tutors and camps, they can’t stand the thought of getting nothing at all
back financially.”
Added the Delaware men’s track coach, Jim Fischer: “I’m somewhat amazed that the question of scholarship money
always comes up, even when it’s an athlete I haven’t shown much interest in and who clearly isn’t a college-level
player. When I meet with them, I sit there thinking, this parent will never even ask about money because their kid
would have trouble making some high school teams. But you know what? They ask for money, too.”
Other coaches said athletes or their parents tried to be too wily in their scholarship negotiations.
“Families will try to play the coaches off each other,” said Kim Ciarrocca, who coaches women’s lacrosse at
Delaware. “They’ll say that they’ve got a half or full scholarship offer from some school and want us to match it.
What they don’t know is that we coaches all talk to each other, and we know the truth.”
She added: “We will call the other coach and ask, ‘Hey, did you offer that kid a full ride?’ When the answer is no,
that kid might have lost the interest of two coaches.”
Godri said parents sometimes are misled by advisers who use the high-profile sports of football or basketball as a
model for how to play the recruiting game. That is a mistake, Godri said, because the money in the nonrevenue
sports is limited.
“The first thing people have to understand is that they are probably not going to recoup the money they’ve already
spent on their kid’s athletic career,” Godri said. “But that’s what they are told. People get exploited. I wish people
would relax and talk frankly to coaches. I’d tell them to lower their expectations, and everything will probably work out
fine for all concerned.”
At the same time, the coaches concede that there is a competitive nature to the recruiting system and that they are
not above using tactics to sway or hurry high school athletes in their decision-making.
Ciarrocca’s husband, Kirk, is an assistant football coach at Delaware. They discuss recruiting strategies.
“I think all the women’s sports have learned from the men’s sports, and right or wrong, we now do some of the things
they do,” Ciarrocca said.
For example, if she is looking for a goalie, she might bring to campus each of her top three potential recruits at the
position in the space of a few days. She said she would tell them that there were three players, that all three had
been on campus recently and that they had a week to decide whether to attend Delaware. The first player to commit
gets the scholarship money. The others do not.
“I’ve waited patiently in the past,” Ciarrocca said, “and lost all three.”
Coaches said the rules of this recruiting engagement were understood by anyone who had been in the game
before. That is why coaches say they are happiest when they make their first call to a recruit’s home and find out the
object of their attention had an older sibling who was recruited by colleges.
“Those people understand the landscape,” Milhous said. “If it’s the oldest child, I know it’s going to be harder.”
Among the principal things families do not know, the coaches said, is that there is a lot more money available
outside athletics in the form of grants, loans and other institutional aid. In many cases, the athletic aid will be a piece
of the financial package.
“The athletic money can also increase over time, because a good 17-year-old player can grow into a great 19-year-
old player, and just about any coach will want to recognize that and keep the player happy,” said Godri, who has
had two recent graduates drafted in the second round of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.
For that reason, most coaches treat their pool of scholarship money as a reserve that must be strategically invested
like a stock portfolio. And like a stock plan, it can be drastically affected by unforeseen outside forces — in this
case, injuries and academic ineligibility. Other factors are the attrition of graduation and an always volatile position
depth chart.
“Sometimes you have to try to predict the future, and if you think it’s easy, you’ve never done it,” Godri said. “This is
why when a parent says to me, ‘You must have more money,’ I can say with a clear conscience, ‘There ain’t no more
money.’ ”
Every coach interviewed said the battle over scholarship dollars would go more smoothly if parents and athletes did
their homework and knew how few full scholarships the N.C.A.A. allowed in each sport (11.7 for baseball, 12 for field
hockey, for example) and how few Division I institutions actually funded sports to those levels (far less than half).
Most said there was an overemphasis on the potential financial benefit of a child’s athletic success.
“What they should be doing is attending the games of a college they are considering,” Milhous said. “Go sit with the
parents of the current players. That will tell you everything. By the end of the game, they’ll know everything — good
or bad. And that’s what really matters.
“But people tend to just focus on the money. They chase the scholarship and I’ve had several families come back to
me a year or two later and say, ‘Chasing the money was a mistake.’ It sounds like a cliché, but there’s a lot more to
being a happy college athlete than how much money you get. The money alone won’t make you happy.”
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
College football
Ute football: Busy players, busy schedules
Lya Wodraska, Salt Lake Tribune, 10 March 2008
A typical day for Ute football player Mike Wright starts when his alarm goes off at 5 a.m. He reports to Utah's practice
facility for a 6 a.m. run, then the business major is off to classes - he has a 14-credit class load ranging from
organizational behavior, computers, business writing and Spanish.
After a quick lunch, it's back to the Smith Athletics center for an afternoon workout. He might stick around for some
treatment if his body calls for it. Then it's home for dinner and studying before he goes to bed and starts the cycle
all over again.
With the arrival of spring practice this week, Wright's days are about to get even busier.
"It's all part of being a football player," he said. "It comes with the territory."
Wright, a junior from Bountiful, has never stopped to add up all the hours he dedicates to football. When the NCAA
recently did - in a survey taken from football players in 2006 and released in January - it found football players
spend an average of 44.8 hours a week a week on their sport.
The student-athletes reported they spend 39.5 hours a week on school work.
The numbers may seem high to observers, but they are plausible to student-athletes such as Wright who make do
with crammed schedules.
"You have to stay focused," he said. "You can't live the typical college life of partying all night and going to class
later in the afternoon. You have to stay pretty strict with your schedule and make sure you stay on top of your
assignments and classes and workouts."
Wright and teammate Robert Johnson, a defensive back who transferred to Utah from L.A. Southwest College
before the 2007 season, say the most difficult time to keep up with academics is actually in the spring, not during the
season.
"This is my first spring here and I'm still not used BYU spring schedule to it," Johnson said. "During the season, you
don't get up early in the morning like we do in spring. But I'm going to do whatever it takes to stay on the Utah
football team. If I have to get up at 4 a.m. I'll get up at 4 a.m."
20 not nearly enough
The NCAA limits a student-athlete's participation in countable, athletically related activities to a maximum of four
hours per day and 20 hours per week during the season. But in actuality, the limit is short of the requirement it takes
to succeed at the collegiate level.
"It takes more than that," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "The great ones take however much extra time they
need."
The rule does not take into account time spent traveling, in the training room or in offseason voluntary workouts -
the last of which athletes and coaches acknowledge account for a majority of an athlete's hours. While they are
listed as "voluntary" workouts, everyone involved knows it's mandatory, if a player wants to be good enough to get
playing time.
"I have my own goals that I want to accomplish, and any extra work helps," said Wright, who lists making all-
conference and helping Utah to a 10-win season among them. "And it's a team thing, if you care about what you are
doing, you put in the extra work."
Making it necessary doesn't make it any easier, especially in the spring when football players often take an extra
class or two so they can go lighter during the season.
JoAnn Hulbert-Eagan, Utah's director of academic advising, said she recommends athletes take the minimum 12
credits in season and up to 15 in the spring. In comparison, Hulbert-Eagan said the university's academic center
recommends students who work full-time jobs take only three to six credits.
She doesn't understand much about the ins and outs of training, she said, but she does understand athletics is
similar to a full-time job.
"It can be overwhelming for them," she said. "I get comments from teachers about them sleeping in class and
those types of things, and a lot of it has to do with their schedule. For the last year or so, we've chosen not to put
the guys into night classes because they are staying up too late and have trouble maintaining their focus."
Being lively in class is the hardest part, Johnson said. On the football field, athletes are in motion and on their feet.
It's easier to nod off during a film session or to the drone of a professor.
"Sometimes when you are in class, it seems like the days are just dragging, like there are more than 24 hours in a
day," Johnson said. "It's good when you have other football players in class with you, because they're not going to
let you sleep. Everybody helps each other out."
End results
Despite the added demands, football players' graduation success rates continue to increase and outpace that of
the general student body. NCAA figures released in 2006 showed 63 percent of Division I athletes graduated within
six years, compared to 61 percent of the general student body.
When transfers are taken into account, athletes' graduation success rate was 77 percent and 66.6 percent for
football players. Utah was below the norm, with just 55 percent of its football players graduating, as were BYU (53
percent) and Utah State (54 percent).
However, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said the graduation rate is low in part because the GSR doesn't take
into account returned missionaries.
"Our graduation rate would be higher if they looked at it a different way, but they just don't know how to figure it
out," he said.
However, Hulbert-Eagan said schools are allowed to shift the missionaries from one year to another to account for
their absence and acknowledged the rate wasn't as high as she would like it to be.
NCAA President Myles Brand has set a GSR goal of 80 percent for student-athletes.
To help Utah's athletes cope, the university provides tutors and other academic support services at the Burbidge
Center, an 11,000 square-foot facility near the Huntsman Center.
"We spend thousands and thousands of dollars recruiting these athletes, we don't want them to be in a situation
where they can't survive academically," Whittingham said. "Ultimately, they are here to get a degree, and we can't
lose sight of that."
Still, something has to give. Rather than compromising their academics or football, Utah's athletes say they give
up their social life. Any free time is often spent at the Smith Center, a place that draws them, if not out of necessity
than habit.
"We're here so long, this is like home," said Johnson as he patted the building's wall. "We have a change of
clothes here, food is here. It's like we're here 24-7. Even if the coaches aren't here, the rest of us are here with each
other."
It's a sacrifice he is happy to make.
"I've always wanted to be a college football player and I'm living my dream right now," Johnson said. "Games on
Saturdays, that's what makes it worth it."
The Scholarship Divide
Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality
Bill Pennington, New York Times sedition, 10 March 2008
At youth sporting events, the sidelines have become the ritual community meeting place, where families sit in rows of
folding chairs aligned like church pews. These congregations are diverse in spirit but unified by one gospel: heaven
is your child receiving a college athletic scholarship.
All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year.
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in
this quest for the holy grail.
But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college
athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National
Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.
Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the average N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship is nowhere near a
full ride, amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the number is routinely as low as $2,000.
Even when football and basketball are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for N.C.A.A.
institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said
Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re
going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of
the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
Within the N.C.A.A. data, last collected in 2003-4 and based on N.C.A.A. calculations from an internal study, are
other statistical insights about the distribution of money for the 138,216 athletes who received athletic aid in Division
I and Division II.
Men received 57 percent of all scholarship money, but in 11 of the 14 sports with men’s and women’s teams, the
women’s teams averaged higher amounts per athlete.
On average, the best-paying sport was neither football nor men’s or women’s basketball. It was men’s ice hockey, at
$21,755. Next was women’s ice hockey ($20,540).
The lowest overall average scholarship total was in men’s riflery ($3,608), and the lowest for women was in bowling
($4,899). Baseball was the second-lowest men’s sport ($5,806).
Many students and their parents think of playing a sport not because of scholarship money, but because it is
stimulating and might even give them a leg up in the increasingly competitive process of applying to college. But
coaches and administrators, the gatekeepers of the recruiting system, said in interviews that parents and athletes
who hoped for such money were much too optimistic and that they were unprepared to effectively navigate the
system. The athletes, they added, were the ones who ultimately suffered.
Coaches surveyed at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions — Villanova University outside Philadelphia
and the University of Delaware — told tales of rejecting top prospects because their parents were obstinate in
scholarship negotiations.
“I dropped a good player because her dad was a jerk — all he ever talked to me about was scholarship money,”
said Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova. “I don’t need that in my program. I recruit good, ethical
parents as much as good, talented kids because, in the end, there’s a connection between the two.”
The best-laid plans of coaches do not always bring harmony on teams, however, and scholarships can be at the
heart of the unrest. Who is getting how much tends to get around like the salaries in a workplace. The result —
scholarship envy — can divide teams.
The chase for a scholarship has another side that is rarely discussed. Although those athletes who receive athletic
aid are viewed as the ultimate winners, they typically find the demands on their time, minds and bodies in college
even more taxing than the long journey to get there.
There are 6 a.m. weight-lifting sessions, exhausting practices, team meetings, study halls and long trips to games.
Their varsity commitments often limit the courses they can take. Athletes also share a frustrating feeling of
estrangement from the rest of the student body, which views them as the privileged ones. In this setting, it is not
uncommon for first- and second-year athletes to relinquish their scholarships.
“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the
college money,” said Tim Poydenis, a senior at Villanova receiving $3,000 a year to play baseball. “They don’t know
that it’s a whole new monster when you get here. Yes, all the hard work paid off. And now you have to work harder.”
Lack of Knowledge
Parents often look back on the many years spent shuttling sons and daughters to practices, camps and games with
a changed eye. Swept up in the dizzying pursuit of sports achievement, they realize how little they knew of the
process.
Mrs. Barry remembers how her daughter Cortney rose at 4 a.m. for years so she could attend a private swim
practice before school. A second practice followed in the afternoon. Weekends were for competitions. Cortney is
now a standout freshman at Delaware after receiving a $10,000 annual athletic scholarship.
“I’m very proud of her and it was worth it on many levels, but not necessarily the ones everybody talks about,” Mrs.
Barry said. “It can take over your life. Getting up at 4 a.m. was like having another baby again. And the expenses
are significant; I know I didn’t buy new clothes for a while.
“But the hardest part is that nobody educates the parents on what’s really going on or what’s going to happen.”
When they received the letter from Delaware informing them of Cortney’s scholarship, she and her husband, Bob,
were thrilled. Later, they shared a quiet laugh, noting that the scholarship might just defray the cost of the last
couple of years of Cortney’s youth sports swim career.
The paradox has caught the attention of Myles Brand, the president of the N.C.A.A.
“The youth sports culture is overly aggressive, and while the opportunity for an athletic scholarship is not trivial, it’s
easy for the opportunity to be overexaggerated by parents and advisers,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview.
“That can skew behavior and, based on the numbers, lead to unrealistic expectations.”
Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.
“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In
America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic
records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best
opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.”The math of athletic scholarships is
complicated and widely misunderstood.
Despite common references in news media reports, there is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. All N.C.A.A.
athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year, something stated in bold letters on the
organization’s Web site for student-athletes. Nearly every scholarship can be canceled for almost any reason in any
year, although it is unclear how often that happens.
In 2003-4, N.C.A.A. institutions gave athletic scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the 6.4 million athletes
playing those sports in high school four years earlier. Despite the considerable attention paid to sports, the select
group of athletes barely registers statistically among the 5.3 million students at N.C.A.A. colleges and universities.
Scholarships are typically split and distributed to a handful, or even, say, 20, athletes because most institutions do
not fully finance the so-called nonrevenue sports like soccer, baseball, golf, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, swimming,
and track and field. Colleges offering these sports often pay for only five or six full scholarships, which are often
sliced up to cover an entire team. Some sports have one or two full scholarships, or none at all.
The N.C.A.A. also restricts by sport the number of scholarships a college is allowed to distribute, and the numbers
for most teams are tiny when compared with Division I football and its 85-scholarship limit.
A fully financed men’s Division I soccer team is restricted to 9.9 full scholarships, for freshmen to seniors. These are
typically divvied up among as many as 25 or 30 players. A majority of N.C.A.A. members do not reach those limits
and are not fully financed in most of their sports.
Ms. Milhous, whose Villanova field hockey team plays in the competitive Big East Conference, must make tough
choices in recruiting. The N.C.A.A. permits Division I field hockey teams to have 12 full scholarships, but her team
has fewer.
“I tell parents of recruits I have eight scholarships, and they say: ‘Wow, eight a year? That’s great,’ ” she said. “And I
say: ‘No, eight over four or five years of recruits. And I’ve got 22 girls on our team.’ ”
That can mean a $2,000 scholarship, which surprises parents.
“They might argue with me,” Ms. Milhous said. “But the fact is I’ve got girls getting from $2,000 to $20,000, and it all
has to add up to eight scholarships. It’s very subjective, and remember, what I get to give out is also determined by
how many seniors I’ve got leaving.”
Two Brothers, Two Stories
Joe Taylor, a soccer player at Villanova, received a scholarship worth half his roughly $40,000 in college costs when
he graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school three years ago. He had spent years on one of the top
travel soccer teams in the country, F.C. Delco, and had several college aid offers.
“It was still a huge dogfight to get whatever you can get,” Mr. Taylor said. “Everyone is scrambling. There are so
many good players, and nobody understands how few get to keep playing after high school.”
In 2003-4, there was the equivalent of one full N.C.A.A. men’s soccer scholarship available for about every 145 boys
who were playing high school soccer four years earlier.
“There’s a lot of luck involved really,” Mr. Taylor said. “I can pinpoint a time when I was suddenly heavily recruited. It
was after a tournament in Long Island the summer after my junior year. I scored a few goals. The Villanova coach
was there, and so were some other college coaches. Within a couple of days, my in-box was full of e-mails. I’ve
wondered, What would have happened if didn’t play well that day?”
Mr. Taylor has a younger brother, Pat, who followed in his footsteps, playing on the same national-level travel team
and for the same Olympic developmental program.
“He did everything I did, and in some ways I think he’s a better player than me,” Joe said. “But you know, I think he
didn’t have the big game when the right college coaches were there. He didn’t get the money offers I did.”
Pat Taylor is a freshman at Loyola College in Baltimore. Though recruited, he did not make the soccer team during
tryouts last fall.
“I feel terrible for him — he worked as hard as I did for all those years,” Joe Taylor said.
Their father, Chris Taylor, said he once calculated what he spent on the boys’ soccer careers.
“Ten thousand per kid per year is not an unreasonable estimate,” he said. “But we never looked at it as a financial
transaction. You are misguided if you do it for that reason. You cannot recoup what you put in if you think of it that
way. It was their passion — still is — and we wanted to indulge that.
“So what if we didn’t take vacations for a few years.”
Pat Taylor, who started playing soccer at 4, said it took him about a month to accept that his dream of playing
varsity soccer on scholarship in college would not happen. He looks back fondly on his youth career but also wishes
he knew at the start what he knows now about the process.
“The whole thing really is a crapshoot, but no one ever says that out loud,” he said. “On every team I played on,
every single person there thought for sure that they would play in college. I thought so, too. Just by the numbers, it’s
completely unrealistic.
“And if I had it to do over, I would have skipped a practice every now and then to go to a concert or a movie with my
friends. I missed out on a lot of things for soccer. I wish I could have some of that time back.”
College athletics take toll
Josh Langenbacher, PSU Daily Collegian, 7 March 2008
By the time Jamelle Cornley sat down for lunch a few weeks ago, he had lifted for 45 minutes, rehabbed a litany of
nagging injuries for 30 minutes and attended his three Monday classes.
His day had just begun.
An hour-long meeting with an academic advisor followed lunch -- he was up past midnight the previous weekend
finishing two papers and studying for a test -- and he left the meeting for a three-hour basketball practice that would
run until 5:30 p.m.
"It's what you sign up for," Cornley said. "You know it's going to be a grind when you sign up. Some people don't
fully understand it until you actually go through it, but it gets frustrating."
If a recent NCAA report is accurate, Cornley's routine is the norm for Division I athletes. The study examined the
average number of hours athletes spend in-season on their sport and found that every athlete spends a minimum of
29.3 "athletic hours" weekly practicing -- which includes time the athletes spend outside of the NCAA-mandated 20
hours a week -- and, in some cases, 40 or more.
Women's track and field, at 29.3 hours a week, required the lowest commitment. Baseball (40.0), men's golf (40.8)
and football (44.8) all met or exceeded the standard 40-hour workweek, according to the study published in January.
An athletic hour was defined by the NCAA report as the total amount of time spent on practicing, training, competing,
therapy, meetings, team functions or film study.
"It is [concerning]," Penn State athletic director Tim Curley said. "But that's generally what everybody wants to do.
You just try to find a balance."
That balance, as Curley knows, can be difficult to find. He and the Penn State athletic department conduct exit
interviews with graduating student-athletes in which he gauges whether too much time was spent on the sport.
Every once in awhile, an athlete will say the commitment was too much, but those cases are rare. If an athlete does
speak up, the athletic department conducts follow-up interviews to monitor how much time is spent on the sport.
"Overall, the feedback we've gotten is most student-athletes feel there's a pretty good balance in place right now,"
Curley said.
Even the time spent competing can be deceptive. The NCAA counts track and field meets as three hours of
competition, even though most meets begin in the morning and end in the early evening.
While track and field athletes aren't competing for the entire duration, Penn State track and field coach Beth Alford-
Sullivan requires her teams to be at the track all day.
She gives her team one day off a week and practices her team for all 20 hours the NCAA allows.
"I think a lot of the time at practice is spent chatting, if you ask me," distance runner Bridget Franek said, smiling.
For some, like the Penn State wrestling team, the commitment is around the clock. Penn State coach Troy
Sunderland practices his wrestlers two hours a day three times a week, but the constant dieting and body
maintenance to compete at their weight class means non-stop cardiovascular exercises like jumping rope, riding a
stationary bike and running.
When Danny Morrissey joined the basketball team, he spoke with Tyler Smith, who played for Penn State from 1998-
2002. Smith advised Morrissey there were three dynamics as a college athlete -- academics, athletics and a social
life.
"You can only pick two of them," Morrissey said. "If you pick two of them, you can be really good at two, but you can't
do all three."
Academics poses another time-consuming commitment. The NCAA report also looked at academic hours and found
every athlete spent at least 30 hours a week on schoolwork. When combining the reported academic and athletic
hours, each sport was more than 60, and some, like football, topped 80.
"It's hard," said Tyra Grant, a guard on the women's basketball team. "It's very hard, but that's when time
management plays a key role in your life. This wouldn't be a better time to learn time-management skills, because
without it, you're lost."
Challenges aside, the perks that come along with being a Division I athlete -- namely, a scholarship -- make the
grind worth it, Franek said.
"That's the choice you made," she said. "You understand you're going to be different from the rest of the student
population."
Collegian Staff Writers Brian Eller and Travis Johnson contributed to this report.
FSU bowl money spread around campus
Angeline J. Taylor, Tallahassee Democrat, 6 March 2008
Florida State University's athletic department has given $200,000 in bowl proceeds to four areas of campus that
focus on academics and student services. Each department will receive $50,000, said Rob Wilson, associate athletic
director for communications.
Wilson said the dollars make up the surplus from bowl games after all expenses are paid. The $200,000 comes from
proceeds of the Gaylord Music City Bowl in December 2007 and the Emerald Bowl in 2006.
Karen Laughlin, FSU's dean of undergraduate studies, explained what type of impact the dollars would have on the
two offices in her department.
"It's wonderful — particularly during this year of budget cuts," she said.
The Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors and the Office of National Fellowship will receive $100,000
which will be used toward hands-on learning and nationally competitive scholarship opportunities.
The FSU Marching Chiefs will get $50,000 for construction of a storage facility, FSU College of Music Dean Don
Gibson said in a news release. The remaining $50,000 will go to the University Counseling Center.
"The funds will allow us to expand our staff in an extremely important area that directly benefits the lives and well-
being of our students," Mary Coburn, FSU vice president of student affairs, said in the release.
According to FSU's public affairs office, the athletic department gave $250,000 in Orange Bowl proceeds to the
universities' libraries. The libraries used that money to buy U.S. Congressional Research Digital Collection archive
which is a database that contains 175 years of congressional information.
Dollars roll into UW despite dismal athletics
Amy Rolph And Levi Pulkkinen, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 5 March 2008
Last year, a University of Washington physics professor conducted an experimental investigation into tiny particles
known as terrestrial electron antineutrinos, and won a national award.
Another professor received one of the top honors in his field for his life's work, research into white blood cells that
changed the way scientists see the human immune system.
Both professors had a better year than another UW employee, Tyrone Willingham, whose football team won a mere
two conference games. But Willingham got most of the notices -- and the notoriety. His face was plastered across
newspapers, and his name was bandied about sports talk radio.
For better or worse, Willingham and his team become the public face of the university several months every year --
a reality that university administrators and boosters say the UW has to capitalize on.
A great football team helps build a great university, they say."You'd like to think a school should be known for its
physics department or whatever," said Doug Glant, a former UW athletics booster. "But the fact of the matter is, the
most public thing is your football team."
That public face of UW athletics was the billboard that the university figuratively planted outside the state Capitol this
winter, hoping that affection for the Huskies would translate into $150 million for a $300 million rebuild of the football
team's stadium. It didn't, at least not this year.
The UW isn't the first college to credit gridiron or hardwood glory with raising up an entire institution: High-profile
athletic teams do what an entire staff of PR men could only dream of -- provide the kind of name recognition usually
saved for pro sports teams and iconic athletes. That publicity, proponents argue, brings in students and boosters'
bucks, the necessities of a healthy university.
But it's not necessarily a valid argument. True, some smaller schools benefit from athletics glory. But many larger
ones, apparently including the UW, draw large numbers of students and sizeable donations in years of pathetic
teams and glorious ones.
Gonzaga University in Spokane tributes its recently thriving basketball team with putting the little school on the map
academically. And Seattle University is vying to return to big-time college basketball, citing as a motivation the desire
to compete with peer universities.
"There's a sports page, and they cover us daily. There's not an education section," said Scott Woodward, the UW's
recently appointed interim athletic director.Gonzaga went from receiving about 2,000 applications in the fall of 1999
to receiving twice that many in 2006. University officials say one big reason for the influx of applicants was the
celebrity incurred by Zags' basketball during the last decade.
But UW sports' successes or failures don't translate as readily into the classroom or fundraising.
Regardless of a recently lackluster performance by the football team, applications continue to pour in at the UW --
even as the university makes its admission standards more rigorous.Following the UW football team's 2000 season,
which it capped with a Rose Bowl victory, about 800 more students than usual applied to the university -- a large
increase, but not uncommon for the UW. Would-be Dawgs flooded the university with applications after a 5-7 football
season in 2006.
"I'm sure that there are probably wonderful effects in all sorts of ways," UW Director of Admissions Philip Ballinger
said. "But I have not seen data that is consistent at universities across the board where athletic success is always
directly connected to sharp increases in applications."
But, he added, it is likely that more nonresident applicants apply to the UW after a series of banner athletics
seasons. An athletic team's reputation is most powerful out-of-state, where universities aren't as well known,
Ballinger said.
Donations don't clearly correlate to athletics either. Washington went 11-1 on the gridiron in 2000, and the
university did see a spike in donations the next year. But giving soared higher still after the 2004 season, when
Husky football tanked with a 1-10 season.
Both seasons were played under the banner of the UW's "Creating Futures" campaign -- an effort to raise $2 billion
for university improvements. Through the campaign the UW has raised well over $1 billion in private, nondeferred
donations alone, about $106 million of which was donated to Husky athletics.
Glant, a South Seattle scrap metal mogul who rolled back his donations after a falling out with university
administrators years ago, said he doesn't believe most big time donors stop writing checks if teams don't perform.
Still, he said a winning team helps, especially when it comes to large projects such as, say, the proposed $300
million renovation of Husky Stadium.
Winning, Glant said, "is an intoxicant."
"You're liable to get a little more enthusiastic and start throwing your money around," he said.
Long-time athletic proponents such as UW President Mark Emmert are onboard with that assessment, saying that a
championship or two can only help the way a university is perceived.
"Where (athletics) have a significant impact is just the kind of general mood people are in about the university and
how they feel toward it," Emmert said. "I've often said that winning in sports makes everything else easier."
Before coming to UW in 2004, Emmert was chancellor at Louisiana State University and played a hands-on role in
the school's athletic revival. As football attendance rose and a national championship was won, LSU saw an
increase in student applications -- notably from out-of-state applicants -- Emmert said.
"What was more important to me was how we were able to use the athletic success to get national attention for the
university and then talk about the things that really matter," he said.
But for some, it's downright impossible to reconcile academia's scholarly side with a steady stream of ESPN sound
bites and annual bowl games named for tortilla chips.
Critics point out that the Ivy League schools have de-emphasized athletics for decades without sacrificing their
reputation. The University of Chicago, once a football powerhouse, now plays in a small-college league.
But Woodward, the UW athletic director, noted that schools like the University of California-Berkeley and the
University of Michigan tend to be the UW's chief pacemakers, and those schools have competitive athletic programs.
Rutgers English professor William Dowling, a long-time proponent of eliminating powerhouse athletic programs at
American universities, claims that athletic programs such as the one at the UW give deep-pocketed boosters the
chance to throw their weight around.
"If commercialized college athletics added anything to the quality of a university, then Oxford and Cambridge and
Heidelberg and the Sorbonne would go out and add a football team," Dowling said. The New Jersey professor
recently authored "Confessions of a Spoilsport," a book detailing his study of collegiate athletics.
Since former UW President Richard McCormick now presides at Rutgers, Dowling has focused a fair amount of
attention on Washington's athletic program. And he thinks the academic culture has deteriorated since the 1930s,
when his mother attended the university.
"Washington has drifted into what used to be an exclusive Southern or Midwestern culture of professional or
commercialized sports -- it's just semi-professional basketball or football with incidental classroom space attached,"
he said.
Top-tier UW donor Ron Crockett started his giving for that "incidental classroom," setting up a scholarship for
business and engineering students in need of financial help. He's not keeping up with the Gateses -- the university
created a whole new donor class for those "regental laureates" -- but he's put dozens of folks through school and
has a sheaf of heartfelt thank you letters to prove it.
Crockett, who made a fortune in aircraft maintenance before building Emerald Downs racetrack, said he was
approached by the UW athletics department years ago when the university was gearing up to a fund drive for sports
facilities. A lifelong Husky football fan, Crockett started donating to the facilities funds and quickly became the
department's point man on courting major donors.
Most high-dollar donors give to academics as well as athletics, Crockett said. And big projects usually require a
broad base of support supplemented by large donations from moneyed givers.
Motives differ for big donors. Crockett said his comes from being the grateful recipient of a scholarship funded by
Puget Sound maritime magnate, ship and bridge builder Horace "Mac" McCurdy. The scholarship helped immensely
as he worked his way through UW.
"I'm very thankful, and I'm thankful every day, that for some reason, I was able to basically start with nothing and be
in a position to help other people," he said. "If I can be a McCurdy to a certain number of people, then I feel very
good about that."
In a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards
By PETE THAMEL
BOSTON — Harvard has never won an Ivy League title in men’s basketball and has not reached the N.C.A.A..
tournament since 1946. This season, the team won only 8 of its first 28 games. Like all the universities in the Ivy
League, Harvard does not award athletic scholarships.
Yet the group of six recruits expected to join the team next season is rated among the nation’s 25 best. This is partly
because Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker, who starred at Duke and coached in the Big East and Big Ten
conferences, has set his sights on top-flight recruits. It is also because Harvard is willing to consider players with a
lower academic standing than previous staff members said they were allowed to. Harvard has also adopted
aggressive recruiting tactics that skirt or, in some cases, may even violate National Collegiate Athletic Association
rules..
Harvard’s efforts in basketball underscore the increasingly important role that success in high-profile sports plays at
even the most elite universities. In the race to become competitive in basketball, Harvard’s new approach could
tarnish the university’s sterling reputation..
Two athletes who said they had received letters from Harvard’s admissions office saying they would most likely be
accepted have described tactics that may violate N.C.A.A. rules, including visits from a man who worked out with
them shortly before he was hired by Harvard to be an assistant coach.
An N.C.A.A. spokesman, Erik Christianson, said the organization’s rules state, “Should a coach recruit on behalf of a
school but not be employed there, he or she is then considered a booster and that recruiting activity is not allowed.”
In another case, Amaker approached the parents of an athlete in a grocery store and urged that their son visit
Harvard, even though N.C.A.A. rules limit contact with potential players to happenstance at certain times of the year.
That athlete ended up not considering Harvard.
Yale Coach James Jones said he had seen an academic change at Harvard. “It’s eye-opening because there seems
to have been a drastic shift in restrictions and regulations with the Harvard admissions office,” he said.
“We don’t know how all this is going to come out, but we could not get involved with many of the kids that they are
bringing in.”
Harvard’s athletic director, Bob Scalise, acknowledged that Amaker’s staff had recruited some players with lower
academic profiles than the previous staff had, but he stressed that no athletes had yet been admitted.
“It’s also a willingness to basically say, ‘O.K., maybe we need to accept a few more kids and maybe we need to go
after a few more kids in the initial years when Tommy is trying to change the culture of the program,’ ” Scalise said
last week. “It’s a willingness to say that we really do want to compete for the Ivy championship.”
To be sure, programs at larger universities would be delighted to have players with the academic standing of
Amaker’s new recruits. Scalise said that other Ivy League programs also considered Harvard’s recruits.
Harvard, he said, has chosen to remake its basketball program into a perennial contender for the Ivy title and the
automatic berth in the N.C.A.A. tournament that goes with it.
Scalise said he was made aware of “three or four” complaints of recruiting incidents from rivals and sat down with
Amaker last November for “a teaching moment.” He said he told Amaker that he and his staff needed to act in ways
“beyond reproach.”
But Scalise said he was not aware until told by The New York Times that Amaker’s top assistant, Kenny Blakeney,
had traveled a long distance to play pickup basketball with a recruit during periods when the N.C.A.A. does not allow
contact with prospective players. Blakeney said he had not been officially hired by Harvard when he visited that
recruit and another prospective player.
Even if Harvard did not break any N.C.A.A. rules, many in the coaching community said Amaker’s staff had behaved
unethically.
On Friday, Alan J. Stone, a spokesman for the university, said: “We can say that any statement about someone
being admitted to Harvard who is not qualified would be absolutely inaccurate, as is any suggestion that our
standards have been lowered for basketball. Harvard’s admission criteria are — and remain — very high. They have
not changed at all.”
To understand Harvard’s apparent change in philosophy, it is necessary to appreciate the complicated tap dance of
Ivy League recruiting. Nearly every prospective Ivy player must meet a minimum on the Academic Index, a
measuring tool that uses grade-point average, class rank and standardized test scores.
For example, a student with a 3.1 grade-point average and just over 1,560 out of a possible 2,400 on the SAT would
register roughly a 171 on the Academic Index, the minimum score allowed by the Ivy League for athletes.
Two former Harvard assistant coaches, Bill Holden and Lamar Reddicks, said they adhered to even tougher
standards under Coach Frank Sullivan. Last season’s team, they said, had an average of 206, the highest in the
league by a significant margin. Sullivan, who in his 16 seasons won and lost more games than any other Harvard
basketball coach, was fired after the season. Amaker did not rehire Holden and Reddicks.
Holden and Reddicks said that Harvard’s team index had to be 202. They said that essentially meant they could not
recruit a player whose index was lower than 195, and they characterized Harvard’s standards as tougher than those
of other Ivy programs.
Scalise said he expected Harvard to still have the highest index average among the Ivy members. It is not certain
that all six of Amaker’s recruits will land on campus, and other recruits with better credentials could raise the index
average.
A Sign of Change
The 6-foot-10 center Frank Ben-Eze from Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., embodies the change in
Harvard’s basketball recruiting. He orally committed to Harvard over traditional powers like Marquette, West Virginia,
Virginia and Penn. Although he and the rest of the recruited athletes have yet to be admitted to Harvard, Ben-Eze is
considered Amaker’s biggest coup, one Amaker proudly mentions to other potential players.
Ben-Eze, a native of Nigeria, has yet to receive what is called a likely letter from the admissions office, a written
assurance that a player will be accepted, because he has not attained the 171 index minimum.
Like all of Harvard’s applicants, none of Amaker’s recruits have been admitted yet.
But Max Kenyi, a 6-3 shooting guard from Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and Keith Wright, a 6-
7 forward at Norfolk Collegiate in Virginia, said that they had each received a likely letter. They were well below index
levels that the previous staff members said they had adhered to.
“There are guys that we couldn’t touch that other schools in our league could recruit,” said Reddicks, who is now an
assistant at Boston University. “It makes a huge difference.”
Scalise said the comments of Reddicks and Holden reflected the bitterness of not having their contracts renewed.
He added that the previous coaching staff could not lure such a talented class because it did not have the
connections, charisma and work ethic of Amaker and his assistants.
“Sounds like there’s a lot of jealousy and also sounds like people are trying to protect the status quo for their
programs,” Scalise said.
Sullivan, who signed a confidentiality agreement when he was fired by Harvard, declined to comment.
Emphasis on Recruiting
Amaker, 42, was fired by Michigan last spring after failing to produce a single N.C.A.A. tournament appearance in
his six seasons there. But in his previous job, as coach at Seton Hall, he and his staff had great success in
recruiting. Amaker beat out other well-established coaches for the Harvard job.
Among them were Pete Gillen, a former coach at Xavier, Providence and Virginia, and Mike Jarvis, whose St. John’s
program ended up on N.C.A.A. probation after he was fired. Harvard also interviewed Mike Gillian, coach at
Longwood University in Virginia, and John O’Connor, an assistant coach at Georgia Tech, in person.
Those four coaches said in telephone interviews that they had been assured they would not be at a disadvantage
among their Ivy League peers in recruiting.
“The bottom line was that they wanted to win,” O’Connor said of Harvard. “They also thought in that room that times
had changed and the big boys had come back to the pack. Now was the time to make the move.”
The recruiting analyst Dave Telep of Scout.com called Amaker’s potential class the best in Harvard history and,
perhaps, in Ivy League history.
Kenyi is a solid midmajor player who picked Harvard over other Ivy League members as well as Holy Cross, Virginia
Commonwealth and George Mason.
Wright received interest from Illinois, Davidson and other Ivy League members before committing to Harvard.
Wright said that Blakeney had visited him when in-person contact between coaches and recruits was not allowed.
Kenyi said Blakeney, a former Duke player, played basketball with him “a couple of times” at his high school last
June or July, which is against N.C.A.A. contact rules. Harvard announced Blakeney’s hiring on July 2, 2007.
Kenyi said that at first he did not realize who Blakeney was. But the man soon turned into his lead Harvard recruiter.
Two weeks ago, Blakeney said his trips to Gonzaga were to visit the basketball coach, Steve Turner, whom he has
known for 20 years, and to stay in shape by playing.
The visits made an impression on Kenyi.
“He was someone I could relate to,” Kenyi said, “someone I could talk to about anything.”
Meanwhile, coaches from other teams recruiting Wright and Kenyi were allowed to call only once a month.
“He actually got to play with us, because he wasn’t actually on Harvard’s staff,” Wright said, adding that Blakeney
had gone to Norfolk for one of his summer basketball team’s practices.. “He didn’t sign anything yet, so he got to
play with us, and we talked and exchanged numbers.”
The practice of recruiting in person before being officially hired is becoming more prevalent among the more high-
profile basketball programs. “Assuming the coach knows exactly what he’s doing, it’s unethical,” said Jim Haney, the
executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Blakeney denied he was recruiting Kenyi and Wright then. “I was unemployed,” he said, repeating: “I was
unemployed. I don’t know if it’s a gray area or anything like that. I hadn’t signed a contract. I didn’t have any type of
agreement with anybody. How could I recruit them to Harvard if I’m not employed?”
Craig Robinson, the coach at Brown, said “wow” when told of Blakeney’s pickup games with high school athletes.
He laughed before saying, “I would say that would give them an advantage.”
Robinson added that it was understandable if Blakeney happened to run across a player in his native Washington
but that traveling to Norfolk, about 190 miles away, was a different story.
“If he travels across a state line to play with a kid he’s going to be recruiting, that smacks a little bit of breaking the
rules,” Robinson said.
He added: “It would not be the way that we would conduct business.. In the long run, that hurts you. There’s nothing
wrong with pushing the envelope, but if your attempt is to get around the rules, there’s an issue.”
Amaker, who declined to respond to specific questions in person, released a statement Friday through a university
spokesman.
“Harvard adheres to austere standards in every area of the university and I am honored to labor within that
framework,” the statement said. “Individuals with knowledge of our staff understand the high principles under which
we operate. We work within the spirit of Harvard and the Ivy League.”
Another issue arose with the recruiting of Zack Rosen, a 6-1 point guard bound for Penn and sought by universities
like Rutgers and Virginia Tech. Amaker saw Rosen’s father, Les, in a grocery store in Trenton during the Eastern
Invitational tournament last summer. At the time, coaches were restricted only to watching recruits and saying hello
to them or their parents if they bumped into each other.
Les Rosen remembered Amaker saying, “We really have to get Zack up to Harvard.”
Les Rosen said he thought to himself: Who goes to ShopRite in the middle of a basketball tournament?
“It was suspicious,” he said, “but as much as it seemed obvious, he wouldn’t be found guilty in court.”
Harvard looked into the Rosen situation and determined that no violations occurred.
Scalise said he and his athletic staff would look into Blakeney’s actions during the recruiting of Kenyi and Wright.
“Now that I’m aware of it, we’ll talk and try and find out what went on,” he said. “I would like our programs to be totally
above the board.”
Adam Himmelsbach contributed reporting from Norfolk, Va., and Washington.
Stripping away facade of Harvard basketball
John Ryan, San Jose Mercury News, 4 March 2008
Another Ivy League men's basketball season passed without Harvard at the top, but the Crimson is setting out to
change that. But what price glory?
The New York Times examined that question Monday, reporting that Harvard has lowered academic standards and
engaged in recruiting practices that, if not expressly illegal, are in that shady area where bigger programs live.
In the most prominent recruiting example, an assistant coach flew in to play pickup basketball with prospects shortly
before he was officially named an assistant coach. But the concern is mostly about the shifting academic profile for a
team that has never won the league championship and hasn't reached the NCAA tournament since 1946.
"It's eye-opening because there seems to have been a drastic shift in restrictions and regulations with the Harvard
admissions office," Yale Coach James Jones said. "We don't know how all this is going to come out, but we could not
get involved with many of the kids that they are bringing in."
The Ivy League has a minimum Academic Index score of 171 for athletes - roughly a 3.1 GPA and a 1,560 out of
2,400 on the SAT. Previous coaches said Harvard's team index had to be 202. New coach Tommy Amaker - trained
at Duke and formerly the head man at Seton Hall and Michigan - has sought relief from the admissions office.
"It's also a willingness to basically say, 'OK, maybe we need to accept a few more kids and maybe we need to go
after a few more kids in the initial years when Tommy is trying to change the culture of the program,' " Athletic
Director Bob Scalise said.
Attention Stanford: Think about it. Harvard has to do this just to compete in Ivy League basketball. So how can the
Cardinal stay afloat in Pac-10 football?
Increase in Student Athletic Fee Rejected by Student Senate
Amanda Flitter, The UNH New Hampshire, 4 March 2008
The air was charged Sunday night, as multiple student senators expressed their doubts about a bill proposing a 5
percent increase to the Student Athletic Fee. Marty Scarano, director of athletics, sat with his arms crossed. Pat
Madsen, senior associate athletic director for finance, was equally solemn.
Geoffrey Wellington, a student senator who presented the bill, commented that ten years from now, he would rather
have UNH be known for an excellent business program than an excellent hockey program, drawing restrained
applause in an environment that generally forbids it. Katherine Steere, speaker of the student senate, banged a
gavel to remind the senators of the no applause policy.
Finally, after two hours, it was time to vote.
"All in favor, say 'aye,'" Steere said.
There was silence. Scarano and Madsen did not wait for the verdict to make their exit.
Student senate voted unanimously against the bill. Currently, the fee is $762, and a 5 percent increase would raise
it to $800 for next year.
Many student senators expressed concerns about the athletic department's budget for 2009, which projects losses
of $339,000 even if the Student Athletic Fee would be increased to $800. These losses would reduce athletic
department reserve funds, which are used in case of unexpected circumstances, to $12,833. The recommended
reserve funds amount for the athletic department is $2.3 million.
Madsen said the budget's revenues are "maxed out" and that expenses are outpacing their ability to generate
money.
Patrick Cambiasso-Helfer, business manager for student senate, called the low reserves "not fiscally responsible."
"I think athletics certainly has value… [but] I think the bottom line is the bottom line," Cambiasso-Helfer said. "You're
taking student money and losing it. Athletics should be held liable for losing people's money."
Andrew McKernan, public relations chair for student senate, said he appreciates the athletic department's work and
their problem but could not bring himself to pass the increase.
"I can't accept that the reserves will be down to $12,000," he said.
Senators also raised concerns about hold harmless funding. Hold harmless funds come from tuition money, and are
used to help departments become more fiscally self-sustainable. Athletics currently gets $2.8 million in aid from hold
harmless funds, but it is unknown when the money will be taken away, leaving questions as to how the athletic
department would be prepared to handle a sudden financial change with low reserves.
Scarano said there is a plan, but did not go into details. He said only that athletics would relay the "dire
consequences" of losing the funds to the appropriate parties if their hold harmless funds were threatened.
The Student Athletic Fee helps fund the athletic program, which has over 650 student athletes in 20 different sports.
The fee helps cover the costs of student tickets to all home volleyball, hockey, basketball and gymnastics events for
the year, a value of $737 per student. It also provides access for students to the outdoor track and fields. The fee
also covers tutoring, training, weight room time and travel costs for athletes.
In addition to the fee, about $632 of each student's tuition goes to athletics. Overall, students support about 71
percent of the athletic department's budget. About 5 percent of the student population is student athletes.
Four years ago, a 13.2 percent increase of the student athletic fee was approved so the department could stop its
deficit from increasing, and two years ago programming was cut in order to reduce expenses.
Scarano said they have considered raising hockey ticket prices by $1 to help generate revenues, but said they are
reluctant because there would be "considerable pushback." He said their fear is the demand for hockey tickets
would decrease. Currently, reserved seating is $21-24 a ticket and general admission seating is $19-22 a ticket.
"Our feelings are it's tough to balance [fee increases and ticket increases]," said Bryan Fritts, a Student Senate
member who presented the bill. "My feeling is we should raise ticket prices… before the student fee."
Wellington said he thought there would be high enough demand that hockey games would still sell out despite a rise
in ticket prices.
Scarano stressed the intrinsic value of athletics to students, such as generating school spirit, in addition to the
monetary benefits of free tickets.
"The athletic department and what it does is important to the university beyond allowing you guys to go to games,"
Scarano said. He mentioned the athletic program draws national attention, and the athletes act as ambassadors for
the university. He said athletes "put in countless hours" between academics, training and community service. This
year, athletes have done 3,000 hours of community service, according to Scarano.
Nationwide, Scarano said, rising athletic fees are common, even among wealthy schools.
"No one is immune in Division I schools to athletic fees rising," he said.
"I'm torn right now," said Student Body Vice President Mike Merrill during a comment period. "I really am. Obviously
people are upset about this fee… I wouldn't want to go to a school without an athletic program with pride. But such a
small percent receive benefits when there's such a large increase for all students."
He later said that passing the fee increase would not be responsible as representatives of the general student
population.
"I'm not against a student fee for athletics," said Wellington. "It's good for the university… but $800? I don't think so.
When [are the fee increases] going to stop? I don't see it stopping."
The Board of Trustees will make the final decision about the fee, but the student voice is strongly considered in the
process.
"The Board of Trustees listens to what we have to say," said Fritts.
Cuffs click, cell doors slam shut and Fulmer skates by
Mike Freeman, CBSSports.com, 25 February 2008
So let me get this straight. The NCAA is the catalyst behind the firing of Indiana's Kelvin Sampson for making too
many phone calls but does little to stop the felony-riddled reign of Phil "Chancellor Palpatine" Fulmer, who heads a
Tennessee football program that has become perhaps the rottenest, most dastardly ever.
That sound you hear are the dots connecting. Bear with me for a second.
Phil Fulmer's record on the sideline trumps his players' records off the field. (US Presswire)
Sampson deserved to be fired. He broke the rules not once but several times. We all make mistakes but Sampson
failed to take advantage of a golden second chance. Not only that, Sampson was arrogant. It was like he was saying
to the administration: screw you. I'll give my recruit a ringy-dingy whenever I damn well please.
So good riddance.
Sampson might have been a chronic rules breaker, but what Fulmer is overseeing in Knoxville is almost an historic
abomination. Tennessee players are running amok with the kind of scrofulous ruthlessness not seen in years.
And the players aren't committing just low-level misdemeanors. It's bad stuff. Stuff that makes Tennessee a
recruiting ground for the Tony Soprano crime family.
"I like your style, Phil," says Barry Switzer.
Thus the dots connect here. It's appropriate that the NCAA enforces its rules as it did in the Sampson case. It's not
so great when such a massive, powerful organization is sterile and helpless as numerous Tennessee players rack
up billable hours for defense attorneys.
Severely punishing programs whose players constantly break the law should also be under the NCAA's watch and
mandate. Why not? The NFL can enact tougher personal conduct policies for its players, why can't college football?
If the NCAA can spend exuberant resources ferreting out the great injustice that is the extra text message, it can
certainly spend a little more time getting control of places like Tennessee.
What the NCAA needs is a strong commissioner who can bully Fulmer and fellow soft disciplinarians into not just
complying with subsections and bylaws but force their players into complying with standards of decency.
It was the threat of NCAA sanctions that led Indiana to send Sampson packing. The reason Tennessee
administrators have done nothing to Chancellor Palpatine Fulmer despite numerous and egregious crimes
committed by Volunteers -- besides the fact he wins a lot of games -- is because Tennessee knows there is little the
NCAA can do to make Fulmer and coaches like him pay a steep price for the scabrous acts of their players.
The Knoxville News Sentinel has chronicled the lifestyles of the athletic and felonious in Knoxville. What's occurring
there is chilling. Keep in mind these incidents are just from the past several months.
On Jan 11, 2008: Police cite freshman wide receivers Gerald Jones and Ahmad Paige for possession of marijuana
following a traffic stop near campus while the two hosted a recruit from Oklahoma on his official visit, the newspaper
reported. Freshman offensive lineman William Brimfield, who was with Paige and Jones at the time, was not charged
by police but was disciplined by Fulmer.
On Jan. 21: Campus police arrest freshman tailback Daryl Vereen for public intoxication and underage consumption
after responding to a call of a fight in progress outside an on-campus residence hall.
On Jan. 26: Police arrest All-SEC lineman Anthony Parker for disorderly conduct at an off-campus apartment
complex, the paper says.
Public intoxication, drunkenness, and fights seem to be a main theme when it comes to rules breakers in the
Tennessee program. If only the Volunteers had that kind of fight in them when they played Florida.
Feb. 2: A walk-on defensive back, Vince Faison, was arrested for DUI after police found Faison passed out behind
the wheel of his truck in the parking lot of an on-campus fast-food restaurant with the engine running, the paper
wrote, and his foot on the brake pedal with the vehicle in gear.
Well, hell, who hasn't passed out after gorging on too many burgers and fries?
So judgmental, you people.
Feb. 13: Fulmer dismisses two players, the paper reports, for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Both players
were arrested within the past 18 months.
I can't imagine what it takes for Fulmer to toss someone off the team. A meeting with the Taliban? Eating someone's
liver with fava beans?
Feb. 17: Police arrest the Vols' punter for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly struck a
parked car causing more than $400 in damage.
The punter allegedly bolted from the accident. Who says punters aren't real athletes?
Probably ran so fast the police put out an APB for Deion Sanders.
The punter's case is an interesting one. It wasn't the first time he found himself in trouble, or even the second. Or
the third. This could be his fifth alcohol-related offense, according to the Knoxville paper. That's where you just
wonder what the hell Fulmer is thinking.
The motto of the Tennessee football program: If the players commit, Fulmer will acquit.
Again, the transgressions listed are all solely from this year. Fulmer's track record in this area is extensive. He
leaves a trail of player arrests, DUIs and serious crimes in his ample wake yet suffers no significant penalty for
running the 21st-century version of The Mean Machine.
And the NCAA sits on its hands and monitors telephone calls.
It's ironic that Fulmer would be in greater trouble with the NCAA if he made illegal contact with a recruit than when
one of his players allegedly hits a car and runs from the crime like a gutless turd.
Many SEC schools -- no, check that, all of them -- have players who get in serious trouble with the law. It's tradition
in that neck of the woods, like voter fraud.
One of the team captains for the Alabama football team, Rashad Johnson, was arrested Saturday for disorderly
conduct. Johnson is the second Alabama player arrested in a week and the eighth to be charged since last summer.
Those are not the kind of statistics a team likes to keep, yet what Fulmer is doing takes crime and lack of
punishment to a whole new level. Tennessee is the Microsoft of runaway programs.
Where are the Tennessee professors and administrators? Why aren't they raising bloody hell over what's
happening at their school?
Most of all, where is the NCAA?
Column: Indiana brought coaching mess on itself
Bob Kravitz, Indianapolis Star, 22 February 2008
It's over.
Sort of.
The short, sordid Kelvin Sampson Era finally ended early Friday night after a long day of threatened mutinies, back-
channel negotiations, a boycotted practice and questions about the identity of the interim head coach.
Sampson, who revealed himself as a real prince of a guy by betraying the university's trust not once, but twice,
walks away with $750,000, a sum he'd best invest wisely.
More important, though, Indiana got what it wanted most: An agreement by Sampson that he would not sue the
university for wrongful termination or anything else.
Sure, it's a lot of money to pay a man to go away, a nice parting gift for a serial cheater, but it's loose change
compared to the price the NCAA would have made IU pay had they gone to the mat for Sampson.
The university had to do what was in its own best interest, and that was to cut ties with Sampson as soon as
humanly possible. Sorry, Jay Bilas, but if the Hoosiers had played this out, they would have spent millions in attorney
fees, would have destroyed one recruiting class and maybe two by extending this into the summer, and they likely
would have been hammered by the NCAA, a group that doesn't have much sympathy for liars.
It took Indiana a while to get this thing right, and as I wrote here months ago, Sampson should have been excused
when the internal investigation uncovered several violations of the terms of his probation. Instead, they withheld a
$500,000 salary bonus, and forced the resignation of one of his top recruiters, Rob Senderoff. The reason why was
obvious: They had Eric Gordon on campus and a solid chance of not only winning the Big Ten, but advancing deep
into the NCAA Tournament.
They sold their souls for a chance to grab the ring. Zero tolerance turned into a little-bit-more-than-zero tolerance.
And then a whole-lot-more-than-zero tolerance. It wasn't until the NCAA dropped the bomb on IU that they did the
right thing.
From start to finish, it was a mess, an unholy mess, and it's one that the people at IU brought upon themselves.
There's no media to blame here. There's no NCAA to blame here. This one falls on the heads of the deep thinkers
who made the decision to hire a head basketball coach who had a history of mis-remembering the rules — or at
least misinterpreting them.
Where do we start?
There's former school president, Dr. Adam Herbert, who scurried to the rafters for Saturday night's game in the
hope of eluding the media's reach. He wouldn't even talk to ESPN's Erin Andrews, and really, who wouldn't take the
time to talk to her? Next game, he'll be sitting on the roof with a transistor radio.
There's athletic director Rick Greenspan, who looks like he will somehow survive all of this, having done a
professional job of distancing himself from the hire. If he was at the Combine over at the Dome, the coaches would
be lauding his ability to backpedal. They teach accounting at Indiana, but apparently there's no course in
accountability.
Before Greenspan is entrusted with making the next hire — gulp — he'd better come clean with exactly how this
Sampson deal went down. He owes that to the fans. Not the media, the fans.
There are the IU trustees, who stood around and let Sampson get hired under their noses. After talking to trustee