The jig, as they say, is up. Done. Over. Gone. There seems to be so much to say, and at the same time so little. On Friday, Yahoo! Sports reported that advisor/mentor/quasi-booster/all-around shady guy Willie Lyles had admitted to sending the University of Oregon his pathetically outdated and useless “National Recruiting Package” for 2010 only after the school frantically pressed him for it in February. As in February 2011. Head coach Chip Kelly reportedly OK’d the $25,000 payment himself. Oh boy.
While there still isn’t a smoking gun on the level of the Jim Tressel email variety, there is now more than enough circumstantial evidence against the Ducks’ recruiting practices for the NCAA to deliver a stern reprimand. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool. College athletics’ governing body may be slow, outdated and bizarrely inconsistent with its rulings, but when there’s this much of a trail, heads tend to roll.
Everyone who follows college football has noticed Oregon’s meteoric rise over the last few seasons. True, the Ducks have had success before, but never at the high, sustained level seen at the end of the past decade. Oregon’s roster has been getting faster, stronger, deeper. Opposing coaches have seen it. Analysts have praised it. Duck fans have bragged about it. How did this medium-sized school out west with only a decent football tradition get so talented? Now, it seems, we have an answer to the question no one wanted to ask. Oregon decided to play with fire. And to paraphrase one of my favorite television characters, they burned the house down. While they were still in it.
The problem for Oregon is that Lyles’ confession ties everything up so neatly. The covering up. The backtracking. The shifting stories and stony silences. All are explained far too conveniently – and logically – by this new story. Yes, Lyles has now changed his own story multiple times, but dismissing him completely is a reaction of only the most ardent homers and likely only a defense mechanism.
The truth is that every Oregon fan’s hair stood on end when the initial reports of Oregon’s relationship with Lyles surfaced in the winter and spring. Despite the hard line from the school that “[it] had done nothing wrong,” there was understandable doubt. As the rumors, substantiated or not, began to grow, Ducks all over grew uneasy. But after a period of relative calm (during which the school released the now-obviously transparent attempt at damage control in Lyles’ recruiting package), the heat began to simmer. Despite the universal feeling that something shady had probably gone down, it appeared the NCAA would have no hard evidence, no real proof that showed Oregon had paid Lyles to directly steer recruits.
Until now.
I know what Lyles says in the Yahoo! interview. He claims that although he overstepped his bounds as a recruiting service and mentor, he never steered any player to Oregon (or any other program, for that matter), nor did Oregon ask him to do so. That all sounds well and good, but will be worth about as much to the NCAA as Jim Tressel’s explanations at Ohio State’s hearing in August. Even if Lyles never specifically told a recruit to go to Oregon, he did enough to act as a booster for the school that the NCAA won’t really sweat the specifics. In principle, he was paid for delivering players to the Ducks. That’s all that matters.
Of course, much of this depends on whether you think Lyles is telling the truth now. Or whether he has any proof of his own that everything he’s admitted to actually occurred. But I wouldn’t bet against him, and I sure hope Oregon isn’t either. Getting into a staring contest with the guy you’ve been dealing with under the table? The only thing more stupid would be doing business with him in the first place.
I know what some Oregon fans will say to all the allegations. These people aren’t shy. Open any blog, listen to any sports radio show. You’ll find them. Oregon is the victim of a conspiracy to weaken the Pac-12. The coaches in Big 12 country – specifically, Texas – couldn’t stand losing out on good players from their home states. They want to bring Oregon down in their jealousy. The football traditionalists in the Big 10 and SEC don’t want to see a West Coast school have any success. That’s why USC got nailed and Ohio State and Auburn went free.
Then, when that runs out of steam…
Lyles is a liar and can’t be trusted. He changes his story daily. Other schools paid him, what about them? If he helped lots of recruits go to different schools, Oregon can’t be punished. Oregon only paid $25,000, that isn’t really that much in the recruiting world. You can’t get a good player for that much anyway – just look at what Cecil Newton was asking for ($180,000. Allegedly).
Doesn’t it all sound hauntingly familiar? We hear the same thing from each fan base every time a new school gets in trouble:
“Not us! We’d never cheat!”
“They’re jealous of our success!”
“There’s no proof. We’ll be fine once the facts come out.”
“This is all made up by (insert rival here) because we beat them every year.”
Funny how these situations tend to work out. I recall these exact arguments being made by USC fans… and Ohio State fans… and Auburn fans. One went down and another's on deck. It will be fascinating to see how all three of those schools come out of their respective entanglements. But it’s worth noting that in these scenarios, the old adage has usually proved to be correct: where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And if the NCAA actually does decide to come calling, there’s usually an inferno.
The West Coast Bias does exist in the polls. But the NCAA, despite what some people might think, isn’t biased; it’s just kind of incompetent. It tends to take more time than it needs to address cases. Ohio State got off easy before as a first-time offender. Just wait until they get burned for everything that’s come out in the last few months, particularly now that it’s been proved the school lied to the NCAA. That’s a major no-no. USC-type sanctions, anyone?
It’s true that Lyles is a slimy guy. He’s even admitted to it. But that doesn't mean he can’t tell the truth. His story just fits too well with what we already knew and confirms all of the conjecture that had been speculating around his role. It’s not as if he’s some unique figure in the college recruiting landscape. Remember the Bryce Brown saga? Some of the mentor types hanging around high school athletes are already three-quarters of the way to being agents. This is in no way a problem that’s isolated to Oregon, but that doesn’t really matter at this point. Lyles just said what everyone was thinking.
I was born a Duck. Both of my parents went to Oregon, I have other family and friends who attended, and I am a recent graduate myself. Nothing would make me happier than to see all of this bad news go away: Lyles exposed as a liar, a scoundrel desperate for media attention, or a tool of some sinister conspiracy to ruin the new Pac-12. I have always and will always want to see Oregon succeed. But I also have the awareness to recognize what is right in front of me. And I sure don’t like what I see now.
I’m also in the business of being fair. Last year I savaged both Auburn and Cam Newton for their painfully obvious pay-for-play scandal. I would be remiss to let the opportunity to do the same to Oregon pass by without a word. It would be better for college football if both teams went down, as opposed to both teams walking free. I still believe Auburn was guilty, as does 99 percent of the country outside Alabama. But the Tigers’ time will probably come, just as USC’s did. Just check out the aforementioned fan arguments.
The NCAA will likely never wield the fabled “Death Penalty” against another program. The catastrophic effect it had on the SMU program has virtually guaranteed that (a story that was chronicled fantastically in the ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary “Pony Excess”, by the way). The NCAA never wanted to use it, and I strongly doubt it will do so again. But if the allegations about Ohio State, Auburn and Oregon are true, no mercy should be shown. Loss of scholarships, postseason bans, it doesn’t matter. Short of the “Death Penalty,” the NCAA must do everything it can to send the message that cheating will not be tolerated. And there’s really only one way to do that.
Burn the house down.
