Well, that was certainly depressing. After a respectable start to my bowl picks, the sport decided to mock me by making me lose seven games in a row. While I can blame one loss on bad officiating (looking at you, Pinstripe Bowl) and another on a team not showing up (Nebraska might have had the most lethargic bowl performance of all time), in general I just picked poorly yet again. Bowl season can be a cruel mistress sometimes, and the better team doesn’t always win. While I was delighted that Washington got revenge on the Cornhuskers, for example, there’s no question which of those teams was better this year. Perhaps I’ll fare better in the later bowls.
With all of the madness associated with the end of the regular season – not to mention my own schedule – I didn’t get a chance to address some news tidbits that came up in December. Chief among these was the firing of Randy Shannon by Miami (FL). Now, I absolutely agree that Shannon’s teams should have performed better on the field. But sometimes you have to look past wins and losses to the other things that make up a football program.
When the Hurricanes fired Larry Coker in 2006, the team was in shambles. Despite fairly recent success, including a 34-game winning streak that nearly culminated in back-to-back national titles, Miami was not same squad it had been. The overall talent level in the program had begun to slip, and the high-profile move to the ACC had proved to be such a significant step up in competition (sounds crazy, but a lot has changed in the past decade) that the Canes’ conference dominance – nine Big East championships in 13 years – was now a thing of the past.
But the team’s record wasn’t close to the most distressing thing about Miami football circa 2006. The Hurricanes, long known for their unsportsmanlike conduct on the field and player arrests off of it, were viewed across the country as a program out of control. Accurately. Remember the shocked reaction this offseason when Oregon saw multiple players cited and charged with various offenses? Miami was ten times worse. “The U” made the right decision when it cut ties with Coker.
Enter Shannon. With little expectations and national opinion for Miami at perhaps an all-time low, the new coach was given the time to do what rebuilding coaches need to: slowly work the program and players back to a place where both would respected and competitive. He purged the team of many of the malcontents and questionable characters that had defined Hurricane football since the Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson days (Erickson, one of a long line of Miami coaches who openly valued winning above fair play, sportsmanship, and NCAA rule-abiding, later coached the 2001 Oregon State team that led the nation in personal fouls – and went 11-1).
But even more important was Shannon’s impact on the culture at the school. Miami hasn’t had a major rules violation, a player scandal, or an embarrassing incident on the field for years. If you’ve followed college football in the last 20 years, the mere idea of that is stunning. The Canes were always in the news, seemingly getting busted for one thing after another. It’s remarkable to compare the two eras to one another. Even though Shannon’s teams underachieved – particularly this season – it’s scary to think of where the program would be without him.
So by all means, Miami, exile the man who saved you from your darkest hour. I thought the school had its priorities in the right place when it brought Shannon in. What does it say about the university (and how much it values loyalty and hard work) now that it has abandoned Shannon? It’s interesting how fast everyone in Dade County apparently forgot about this.
The NCAA pulled another fast one when the news of the Ohio State tattoo scandal (which will henceforth be referred to as “TattooGate”) broke. Cam Newton had to be rolling over in his grave – with laughter – when he heard the ruling that the five OSU players would be suspended starting next season. What's that? He's still alive? Well, he would have, if he was dead. In any case, the NCAA’s decision is once again absolutely baffling and makes the entire idea of amateurism seem like a complete joke. So, we’re to believe that the Buckeye players didn’t know it was a violation to sell their jerseys, trophies, and autographed memorabilia? I suppose the next question is, how stupid does the NCAA think we are?
First of all, there’s the “plausible deniability” defense. It was used the Newton case, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it used again here. But in this situation, it isn’t even plausible. Ohio State has a huge athletic department, complete with several people whose sole job is to ensure violations like this don’t occur. Yet they apparently “failed to educate” the athletes on this subject, which lies pretty much at the heart of the idea of collegiate amateurism.
Well, OK. So Ohio State’s athletic department is just incompetent. Kind of insulting to them, but let’s roll with it, I’m really gullible. What about the coaches? You’d better believe that all coaches know exactly what is allowed and what isn’t in regards to keeping their players eligible. It’s pretty much their most important job – making sure their charges can play. So where was Jim Tressel – not to mention the rest of the coaching staff – in all this? It seems rather unlikely that no coach ever sat down to talk to his players about the dangers of accepting and giving benefits.
All right, so I guess Tressel is just incompetent too, and ignorant at that. Given his background and experience as a major-college coach, this once again seems unlikely. But once again, I’ll buy it, because I’m really gullible. So how does the NCAA explain the smoking gun that is the A.J. Green case?
I’ve written about Green before. If you don’t recall, he’s the Georgia player who was suspended four games to start the season after he sold his bowl jersey last year. I thought the punishment was harsh considering how the NCAA has acted against players who have violated other rules. However, Green did do something illegal, and he had to pay. Fair enough. Now, explain to me – given the punishment Green received – how these OSU players are still eligible for the Sugar Bowl.
Green was suspended immediately, for the first four games of the 2010 season. This makes sense, because he had made himself ineligible by violating his amateur status. The NCAA ruled the exact same thing in the Ohio State case, so shouldn’t they have been suspended immediately as well? The only difference is the caveat that the players “didn’t know the rules.” Since when, exactly, is ignorance of the law a permissible excuse? That is, of course, if you even buy the “plausible deniability” garbage the NCAA has been spewing out. I don’t know how you can. You’d have to be really gullible.
The Ohio State situation has emphasized yet again what the only important thing is in college sports – money. The NCAA wants the Sugar Bowl to be a success. Disallowing some of the Buckeyes’ best players in a high-profile BCS bowl would be self-destructive. It would hurt OSU, it would hurt the Big 10, and it would potentially hurt the chances of the Sugar Bowl to do well. Why do you think the bowl’s organizers were so pleased at the NCAA’s decision? Big surprise there. They care about one thing – how much revenue they can bring in. Eligibility, rules, ethics… these things mean nothing in today’s college football world. There’s exactly one organization that believes the game is as pure as it was in its infancy, and it’s the one calling all the shots. The NCAA is God. It has a reality that it wants to exist, and it has made it so. Amen.
Now, Tressel has apparently decreed that any of these players who want to play in the Sugar Bowl must pledge to return for their Senior seasons. That’s a good idea, because it forces the guys who broke the rules to serve their suspension next year if they want to play now. But you know what would have been better? Taking the audacious step of suspending them himself. Tressel could have taken a stand and said that he wouldn’t tolerate illegal behavior while giving the players the option to return if they wanted to make amends for their actions. You want to come back? Great. But you get to sit out now.
While I do love this sport, there are several things about it that can make people uneasy. The shadowy agents that lurk behind players, the obvious violations that occur across the country, and the self-serving coaches that see themselves as better than the rules can all temper one’s enthusiasm for college football. But in general, as fans we tend to block out the parts of the game we don’t like and glorify the parts we do; it’s only natural.
As a bigger football fan than most people (the word “fanatic” is truly applicable to me), I probably do this even more. However, I also make every effort to recognize the dark side of sport. That’s why I want to tout the book I just read by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry of The Seattle Times. “Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity” details the 2000 Washington Huskies and all of the behind-the-scenes events that went unreported or were covered up as the school and local media sought to protect the team’s magical run to the Rose Bowl. It’s disgusting, shocking, and a must-read.
More importantly, it’s the most sobering reminder you’ll ever get of the true nature of big-time collegiate athletics. The worst part of reading the book isn’t discovering what the Washington players did – it’s the realization that all of the events chronicled within aren’t the exception in college football – they’re the rule. Washington just happened to leave enough of a trail to get caught. The sad truth is that things that went on that year in Seattle (not to mention the events leading up to that season) are probably fairly commonplace. No one wants to believe that their team could be guilty, so when confronted with the decision to do the difficult thing – to question what the team and media tells them – fans will turn a blind eye. Every time.
And on that uplifting note, I have to take my leave. I only have time this week to address these topics, but I plan to write another post before the national championship game to preview the Oregon-Auburn matchup in-depth. Happy New Year.
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