Ok, so I was pissed to see Coach Sampson bought out. I completely understand that the rules are the rules and he violated them. I can't even argue that the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Coach Sampson appears to be a repeat offender. What I have a problem with is the NCAA and this situation is emblematic of exactly what is wrong with the organization.
The NCAA is an organization that supposedly prides itself on making sure that athletes are students and attend college with the intent to be students. What the NCAA fails to understand, IMHO, is that often students attend college with a specific goal or dream in mind. It may be to graduate and become an accountant, a musician, an artist, a teacher and any number of other professions. Every student who goes to school, post high school is given every opportunity and encouraged to maximize their effort and optimize their resources to achieve their goals. Unless of course they happen to attend a school that is a member of the NCAA and their goal is to be a professional athlete. In those cases, the NCAA does everything it can to make sure that the athlete is not a typical or traditional student.
For these student athletes, rather than doing every thing possible to excel in their chosen field, they face rules and restrictions that are exceeded in quantity and complexity only by the US Tax Code.
One summer I visited Indiana and there were some players working out and playing on the Assembly Hall court. After watching a few minutes, I walked in the hall and there were a bunch of other players just standing outside. Waiting. I of course asked why they weren't on the court with their teammates. Turns out that no more than 4 players could be on the court at one time. Imagine telling a cello player they couldn't practice with more than 4 members of their school orchestra. This was just the first of a list of inane rules that the compliance officer who was at the gym went on to list.
yes, there was someone there who was in charge of enforcing the NCAA rules.
I wasn't able to find exact numbers, (hopefully a reader can provide them), but I would hazard a guess that many Division 1 schools spend more money on NCAA analysis, presentation and compliance than they do on many of their academic programs. How sad would it be if my alma mater Indiana University, spends more money trying to deal with the NCAA and its rules than it does on its history or math programs ?
Which takes me back to IU. Every few days or so, I get an email from a current or former student asking why I don't donate enough money to build a state of the art arena on campus. Now you know why. The chances of me giving money to any school that doesn't offer the opportunity for their student athletes to accomplish their dreams are slim and none. Withdraw from the NCAA and we can talk.
Of course that won't happen. The NCAA money (which as I am told, funds more athletics and not academics) is bigger than a check I could write and what fun is it not having anyone you can play against. For now.
At some point, hopefully someone will spend the time to put together sports alliances completely outside traditional high school and college ruling bodies that will allow students to be passionate and work hard for their dreams both on the court and field and in the classroom. Which is exactly what happens overseas in most sports.
The supremely talented and promoted can still prosper in the current system, but for those who are willing to make up for whatever they may lack in natural gifts with hard work, and good tutoring, the NCAA doesn't make dreams come true, they do their unknowing best to kill dreams.
Coach Sampson deserves his share of the blame, and he is accepting the consequences. When are we going to realize that the NCAA deserves more than its share of blame. They are dream killers, not enablers. Thats reason enough to end the NCAA reign.
The NCAA and the Hoosiers
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Reader Comments
(Page 3)42. Mark, you're absolutely correct regarding the NCAA's ridiculous rule book and archaic regulations. It's silly that they have some of those rules in their book.
That being said, the rules are the rules, no matter how most of us feel about them. Just because they're silly rules, that doesn't mean that Sampson can just choose to disregard them....especially when he's already been caught for previously breaking the rules.
Yes, there should be some people who take charge in changing some of the rules in the NCAA rulebook. But Sampson should not be excused for breaking these rules because he doesn't think they should be in the book in the first place.
Posted at 1:35PM on Feb 25th 2008 by Ryan
43. The NCAA has to govern across every division and every sport which makes it responsible for a huge amount of resources, both in terms of money and people. Blame the NCAA - it's an easy shot. In fact, it takes little to no effort on your part. Most people will agree with you. But add to the NCAA's responsibilities dealing with unscrupulous boosters and coaches who look for every loophole in the rules and you have to admit that this complexity isn't unlike most other organizations of it's size and complexity.
Part of the reason that complexity is there is because of schools like Indiana who chose to hire a coach who they knew had violated the rules in the past. There is plenty of stupidity to go around.
Part of that complexity is there because that's the nature of large organizations, and part of it is there to keep more lawyers employed.
Posted at 2:17PM on Feb 25th 2008 by Jon johnston
44. I am not a great believer in the need for unions in a perfect world. However, the NCAA is a perfect example why unions came to be in this country. They operate a multi-million dollar business, completely tax-free, supposedly all in the name of the "student athlete." The so-called student athlete in the major sports are solely responsible for making this possible. Does the NCAA reward them for their efforts, never, they leave that up to the schools to do in the form of "FREE" educations. Most of the major universities finance those scholarships through their athletic foundations rather than as a direct expense to the school. Much of the window dressing that is put up by the NCAA is nothing more than a ploy to keep their tax-free status in the eyes of the U.S. Congress. It's time for congress to step in and create some parity in this financial boondoggle. Write your congressman.
Posted at 5:47PM on Feb 25th 2008 by td
45. Nobody likes the NCAA. I was glad to see them leave KC, KS. I do have one question: what keeps coaches from demanding that their players play 8-10 hrs. each day in the offseason? Would
athletes have a life outside of sports if there were no regs?
This is the only disagreement I have.
Posted at 5:54PM on Feb 25th 2008 by kilgatron
46. Please help the Sonics stay in Seattle, because we care!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25UrxYZc1Ew
Posted at 6:44PM on Feb 25th 2008 by Five
47. Hello Hoosier faithful-
Below is the text of a personal letter I mailed to President McRobbie at IU. His office will receive it by the end of the week. I hope he reads it and takes action. Enough is enough.
President Michael A. McRobbie
Office of the President
Indiana University
Bryan Hall 200
107 S. Indiana Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405
Dear President McRobbie:
I do not envy the position you currently find yourself in as in your first year as President of Indiana University you are forced to deal with a crises that has rattled the core of the heart of the University that we both love so much. IU is so much more than its basketball program yet we both must acknowledge that the spirit and love that students, alumni, faculty and the taxpaying citizens of state of Indiana feel about IU is translated into the following all these constituencies have for IU’s basketball program. Thus, as recent events have tarnished the basketball program, these same events have tarnished the love all of us have for IU. My heart aches for what has transpired at my alma mater and the solemn responsibility for which you are now charged which is at its core, is to heal the pain of Hoosiers across the state and nation.
Whispered at every alumni event across the state and nation is a question likely none dare ask you directly, as I did not even dare ask, when I attended the New York reception for Anthony Thompson, which you attended via satellite this past November.
When will IU invite Coach Knight back to Bloomington to be inducted into the Indiana University Athletic Hall of Fame?
There exists a rift, an open bleeding wound resulting from the firing of Coach Knight by your predecessor back when I was a student at IU that continues to be felt today. The current situation is just the latest puncture in a wound that has never fully healed. I do not necessarily agree with everything Coach Knight did or said during his twenty nine years in Bloomington but I have accepted that he was not a saint but a basketball coach. What I did agree with is that for twenty nine years IU graduated its players, its players went to class, its players always included great character young men and there was an aura of integrity that surrounded our program. For twenty nine years, IU did things the right way and along the way we won some basketball games.
The first step you must take in healing the basketball program is to reach out to Coach Knight and invite him to Bloomington for his long overdue induction into the Indiana University Athletic Hall of Fame. He deserves this honor at a minimum for what he did for IU for twenty nine years and I believe this would begin the healing process the University so desperately needs. I have heard via ESPN some things about you and in particular about your relationship with IU’s former President Myles Brand. I know from watching and having just one or two personal interactions with Coach Knight as a member of the IU Basketball Pep Band during my time at IU that not everything ESPN reports is always true. I encourage you to speak to distinguished alumni, past administrators including former President John Ryan, perhaps even taking a trip to Assembly Hall and speaking to the members of the Athletic Department at all levels that were here when Coach Knight was and form your own opinion of him.
His twenty nine years of graduating players while never having the hint of NCAA impropriety, of his players attending their classes and going on under his continued mentorship to wonderful lives and careers and his efforts to raise money for the University alone demand some type of acknowledgment from IU. He never deserved the treatment he endured upon his termination.
He has always been the first to acknowledge his personal failings and if you think that he would ever refuse a call from the President of Indiana University, than you do not know him at all. He would be the first to admit that he is no saint but I believe he was a great basketball coach. The current situation serves as an exclamation point for what he did during his twenty nine years at IU and how it made Indiana basketball a program superior to any other in the country. IU basketball will survive this, IU basketball will prosper again but I believe the only way for the those that love IU to be made whole and to fully heal from the wound which continues to fester until today is to invite Coach Knight to Bloomington, to reconcile, to heal so that we can all root for our Hoosiers with full hearts and minds again. President McRobbie, heal your ailing Hoosiers, heal us, please.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Landes
Kelley School of Business
BS-Accounting, 2001
Marching Hundred &
IU Basketball Pep Band 1997-2001
Posted at 9:48PM on Feb 25th 2008 by Jonathan Landes
48. Mark,
As a former employee of the NCAA national office, there are a couple of popular misconceptions about the NCAA's role in college athletics.
First, you must draw the distinction between the NCAA as an organization and the NCAA national office. The NCAA as an organization is the member institutions as someone previously pointed out. The member institutions make the bylaws the member institutions must abide by through committees made up of athletics administrators from the member institutions. Bruce Jaffee, the Faculty Representative from IU, is a member of the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet. There's a reason why a rules exists that keeps the number of players in the gym at one time during the off season at four...The member schools wanted it that way. That's not to say some of the rules are tedious and bothersome. The NCAA as an organization is much like Congress in that manner.
The NCAA national office acts mostly in a leadership role. President Brand really has no power as President, he is mostly a figurehead to guide discussion and provide vision. He makes no rules and doesn't make any decisions. Most of the staff in Indy are there to collect and distribute information to the member schools and provide guidance. In the enforcement process, the staff acts in a prosecuting role, collecting information and making a case to the Committee on Infractions. However, any decisions on guilt and punishments are made by the Committee on Infractions, which once again, is made up of athletics administrators from member institutions, sort of a jury of your peers.
For 98% of the student-athletes, the NCAA as a whole promotes a system that provides a balance between academics and athletics. Yes, there are that 1-2%, especially for football and basketball that are there to basically major in their sport and have no desire to learn any academic subject. They want to get to the pros. The NCAA bylaws probably do cramp their development as athletes. That's why the NBA needs to do more to promote and develop the D-League (And the NFL needs to come up with some sort of developmental system all together instead of leaching off the colleges). Higher education isn't for everyone. Baseball and Hockey have established minor-league systems for those who want to go pro straight out of high school. The NBA needs to make the D-League a better option for some.
Posted at 1:30AM on Feb 26th 2008 by Mike
49. A lot of people are arguing / defending the NCAA's position by rationalizing the 'services' they provide... i.e. #25 above 'it makes sense for the sanctioning body to be involved in that backup plan.'
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these are KIDS before they are professional athletes. In otherwords, children with (or without in a few cases) parents. Mistakes are life. Learning is life. Get over it. I can't be their parent. Their college (& other) coaches can try - but ultimately, 9 out of 10 athletes won't let that happen. BUT DO NOT mistake the NCAA for some rightiously, holier-than-thou, omniscient, father-figure for the underpriveledge, guided-through-education youth of America taking the best interest of the CHILD ATHLETE into their bosom and raising them to be multi-millionaires or in the very least a well educated, trained, and productive member of society...
The NCAA is all about $. The $ for the boosters. The $ for the Elite Alumni. The $ for the Board of Regents. Etc. The $ that's in college sports - DGM. Oh, but we're protecting the kids... GMAF Break.
Regulating is easy, it's when organizations (like the NCAA) scheme and have rules for call times, visits, 4men on a floor, and so many rules can't follow along and have to (as Mark said) spend so much $ just to be in compliance - that's when something really convoluted is going on.
I heard it the other day, and I wish I could give the proper credit - if you want to regulate these 'Coach Sampsons', give these programs/coaches an NCAA issued cell phone. Trace the calls. Give them prepaid minutes. Whatever.
Posted at 7:50AM on Feb 26th 2008 by Jacob D. Coley
50. I agree completely with your assessment of NCAA. I am an IU alum myself. I wonder why it is that "governing bodies" be they agencies or corporations intended to regulate, turn into "big brother" and actually become a huge negative. Individuality, creativity, and drive are stifled. It's becoming harder to take a breath for fear of reprisal and reprimand. How sad.
Posted at 8:36AM on Feb 26th 2008 by C Hansen
51. Interesting point -
I graduated in the 65th percentile of my class, mech engineering. I worked all through school getting paid as much as I possibly could, no regulations. I was able to keep up with my lifestyle and tuition.
A student athlete in the 99th percentile of talent on his team is allowed to receive room and board and basic living conditions. Additionally, they are working anywhere from 30-40 hours a week at their "jobs" and bringing in a great deal of money.
So I ask, why is it ok for a student to earn income within their educational field if it is not athletically related, but the second it involves a ball rather than a book the NCAA feels the need to strip every last dime of that money from their hands? Keep in mind, a majority of college athletes receive NO scholarships, their 40 hours is strictly an "unpaid internship". Time to start paying them, slavery is over.
Posted at 6:11PM on Feb 26th 2008 by Graham
52. A couple of comments (some you are not going to like):
1. Agreed the NCAA needs to rethink many of its rules.
2. Until then the rules are the rules, and you can’t have an effective organization or society for that matter, as long as a few people decide the rules don’t apply to them. If one of my employees breaks our company rules/policies more than once they aren't sent packing with a fat severance check. They are sent packing with their pencil cup. We need to stop paying cheaters and rule breakers, plain and simple.
3. How many NCAA division one athletic programs are profitable? Maybe we should change all the rules to suit the athletic programs when the professional sports leagues, particularly the NBA and NFL start paying the colleges for students they draft or simply for having teams. The fact is colleges are the de-facto minor leagues for these two leagues (and don’t tell me the CBA or AFL are because the math doesn’t add up). MLB has an entire system for developing talent where they foot the bill, why don't the NBA or NFL?
5. Mark, tell me you really aren’t comparing a college orchestra member who might go on to earn 30 or 40 k per year after graduation, who goes to class and earns a degree with a student athlete who may go on to earn millions while barely setting foot in a class room. Many of the student athletes I tutored in college would not attend class if it wasn’t a requirement. I don’t know a single musician from my college who thought about it the same way. Could be that those who did think that way never went to college; they went straight from high school to working on their career. Maybe it is time pro-wannabe athletes should do the same thing.
6. How about the NBA drafts high school kids, who then go onto college to play for a minimum of two years. The team that drafts the player pays the players tuition, R&B, medical expenses, a reasonable salary, and pays the university for training?
Posted at 7:06PM on Feb 26th 2008 by Chris Scurto
53. As far as proposals, Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development outlines an entirely new model for developing basketball players from the grassroots through the professional level. In particular, the final two chapters discus an Elite Development League and a High Performance Center which could replace NCAA basketball as we know it. For more infrmation, the book is available at:
http://www.lulu.com/content/885452
And a web site dedicated to the new model is
www.thecrossovermovement.com
Posted at 7:43PM on Feb 26th 2008 by Brian McCormick
54. The very achievement of having a diploma from IU makes it difficult for me to disagree with you Mark. That, in conjunction with nearly 20 years in coaching...well you get the picture. there is no love lost between the NCAA and I. Though I will say as a collegiate coach I did not break the rules. Not one of them. The tax code? That's another story.
But there's a flip side to the coin that's both obvious and rarely highlighted. It's an industry filled with cash, cash is king, and where cash is king (or "flowing") there are associated "undesirables" trying to make a withdrawl from the ATM of revenue producing collegiate athletics. If so many folks didn't try to break the rules there may not be so many of them. It's a reactionary position, I'll confess. And the NCAAA book is rife with confusion and complexities beyond reason.
I was no more offended by the Sampson buyout than I was the firing of Rick Neuheisel.
If you hire an offender you hire someone who is either incredibly careless (in a field that warrants care) or someone who simply knows better and violates just the same. Either way a repeat offense should shock only a toddler.
The NCAA doesn't really have a track record of handling anything very well. And isn't Miles Brand running the thing? So again an expectation of higher levels of performance are not indicated by past patterns. Brand fired Knight just after I left grad school. And while IU had the right to have or not have any coach they wanted the methodology with which they terminated Coach Knight left a bad after taste.
Can you think of any instances where the NCAA operated with a high degree of ethics, compassion, and understanding? No? Neither can I.
Posted at 8:04PM on Feb 26th 2008 by Gordon Kaplan
55. Mark,
I think you missed the point of most of the NCAA's rules. They are to protect the student athletes from the coaches. Coaches are in a multi-million dollar industry where their success depends on these athletes. Any extra coaching and practicing they can get in theoretically improves their chances of winning and earning the big paychecks. On the other hand you have the vast majority of players who are not going to play professionally and are well aware of that fact. They play because they love the game and also for the scholarships. If you doubt that look at all the kids who play at division II and III schools. The rules exist to protect the kids who really want to learn from coaches who would practice them to the point where it interferes with their education.
Posted at 10:15PM on Feb 26th 2008 by Jordan
56. Back home in Honduras (and I believe that is the case in many other countries), those who are talented enough join the pro clubs' farm system early on -- even as they are going through school. The youth leagues don't travel as much, and most of their games take place during weekend and holiday tournaments. By the time they are done with high school, kids -- and the pro clubs -- will know if the athlete has what it takes to play at the pro level. The athletes lose the right to play at the high school level only if they manage to play in the senior team, the "major league," if you will. College sports are mostly recreational and for the benefit of the students.
Posted at 12:06AM on Feb 27th 2008 by teh_drz_ftw
57. Did you really just say Larry Brown was a class act? What world have you been in?
Posted at 1:29PM on Feb 27th 2008 by jeff m
58. I agree. I think NCAA needs some competitions.
Posted at 2:28PM on Feb 27th 2008 by Hearing Protector
60. Wow, this blog is so right on, I am addicted to your page now! I never even thought about that, the NCAA is exactly like the US Federal Reserve System! It owns every bank and our government, complete monopoly of all US money period! And the worst part is how many out of the countless thousands of students that attend these schools hoping to get into the pro's are disappointed each year by not getting selected? They have nothing to fall back on as the education system failed them! You are extremely intelligent! I just read your biography and you are just incredibly inspiring. I also read an article about you called "Mark Cuban’s something of an iconoclast iconoclast." Students my age (22) should aspire to be more like you and not Kobe or Michael, because the chances of the latter occurring are slim to none!
Posted at 3:05AM on Mar 1st 2008 by C
41. Although I tend to agree with your frustration towards the NCAA, I can't understand any type of support you have for coach Sampson.
I would never criticize him for his coaching ability on the court, his record speaks for itself. The fact that he did break the rules, regardless of how mundane they were, places him at odds with everything a college institution stands for.
If IU was to stand behind him, they would be sending a terrible message to every student to ever enter or exit the program. That winning, at any costs, is far more important than playing the game by the rules.
Posted at 1:15PM on Feb 25th 2008 by Kurt Peterson